Love Is Like A Rose
by liquid lily
Summary: Years have passed since Ginny graduated from Hogwarts and last saw Harry Potter, but when she runs into him one morning in Oxford, how will their newfound relationship bloom, and how will her family take it?
1. From Time Immemorial

Love Is Like A Rose

By liquid lily

Chapter 1: From Time Immemorial

Ginny touched the bump on the back of her head tenderly, wincing when her fingers came in contact with it. She had fallen down the front porch stairs again this morning, for the third time that month. You'd think after living there for more than four years she'd have learned how to navigate six plain concrete stairs, but apparently it was beyond her ability.

She needed to remember to pick up something for the headache that was already growing after class was over. To make matters worse Sam, her flatmate, who was sitting two rows ahead of her, was grinning knowingly. To retaliate, Ginny stuck her tongue out, and let her hand drop back to the desk; she would get her revenge later.

Trying to will herself to concentrate on something else, she looked down at her notes, and doodled a flower in the margin. There was only ten minutes left of class, and she didn't have more than four sentences of notes, so there was no reason to start paying attention now. It was the only the beginning of the term, so she had plenty of time to catch up, and after all she could hardly be expected to pay attention with a lump the size of a quaffle growing on the back of her head. Maybe, if she had any skill with healing spells, it wouldn't be such a problem. Unfortunately the best wound she could hope to fix with her wand was a paper cut, of which she had already had three today. Really, she needed to start being more careful, before she wound up in St. Mungo's.

The class was getting restless, the low murmur growing in volume. There were papers being passed back, and the teacher looked like she was wrapping the lecture up and packing up her notes. Ginny reached for the stack of papers when it came to her, took on and passed the rest back, then she groaned aloud. It was another assignment for an essay, due in two days time. So much for her social life.

Deciding to worry about it later, she stuffed the paper in her notebook and shoved the books in her bag so she could catch Sam in the hallway. He was waiting for her, tapping his foot impatiently, and gesturing to the clock.

"What's the hurry?" She asked, when she was still several feet away. The stream of people filing out of the classroom door was making it difficult to move much faster than a half step at a time.

"I gotta be at work in like fifteen minutes," Sam replied, craning his head over those of the other students. "Walk with me?"

"Sure," she said, breaking through the door and starting down the stairs as briskly as possible.

Most of her classes were held in a narrow tower, which made coming and going near impossible. You had to walk single file, which made it difficult for people going up and people going down. Mostly, classes were arranged very carefully so that there was only one stream of traffic going. All you had to do was make sure you were on time to class, which for Ginny, was asking a little much. On more than one occasion she had been left standing at the bottom of the tower for twenty minutes, waiting for a chance to make it up the stairs.

"Fall down the steps again?" Sam asked, noticing her fingering the bump again.

"Is it that noticeable?" Ginny responded, then thanked him for holding open the door as they passed out of the tower into the warm summer day.

Sam wrinkled his nose and tried to suppress a smile. "Only a little bump, you'll survive."

"So, how late are you working?" She asked, navigating her way through the throng of students that covered the ground.

"Six I think, but I'll probably stick around," he said. "You coming by later tonight?"

"Nah, I'm working at the club," she responded.

Graduating from Hogwarts hadn't done much to alter her poverty. Though she found herself slightly better off than she had ever been living under her parent's roof, Ginny still had to work two jobs to pay for her post-Hogwarts life. One job, her favorite, was working at her best friend's mother's café. Sam worked there, as well as the majority of their circle of friends, so it was always a blast. Her other job was the one she had received when she first moved away from home, and the one her brothers would most certainly disapprove of if they knew about it. She bartended at a local club, and though it wasn't her preferred career, she made damn good money doing it.

"Maybe we'll stop by for drinks," Sam said, ducking out the gate and onto the street.

"Oh, bugger," Ginny cursed, as she reached for her book bag. "I think I left my textbook back in the classroom.

Sam gave her a pitying look, but slowed down so that she could look. "Sucks to be you today, babe," he said by means of consolation.

Ginny glared at him. He wasn't cheering her up at all. She flipped her bag around her side and dug through it, no textbook. She thought it had felt lighter than usual.

"Looks like I have to double back," she said, running a hand over her head again, and flinching when she reached the bump.

Covering up a snicker, Sam amended himself by nodding seriously. "Good luck with the stairs, I'm going to head off then, I'll see you back at the flat later tonight."

"Yeah, sure, bye," she told him absently, already turning around to head back to the tower. Today really wasn't going her way.

Most of the time, she loved her life, she only wished she wasn't so… clumsy, forgetful, late, absentminded… The list really went on and on.

After graduating Hogwarts, Ginny had puttered around the Burrow like her brothers, but before even the summer had ended, an opportunity had presented itself. By August, she had packed up her life, said goodbye to her family and moved to Oxford to attend university. Most witches and wizards ended their education after they reached 17, but there will still universities in the magical world, they were just much less popular than they were in the muggle world. One of the biggest in the world was Oxford University, located right in Oxford, England. Of course, it was also one of the biggest muggle Universities in the world as well, which presented a bit of a problem.

The magical Oxford University was located on the muggle campuses right with the muggle's classes. There was a magical area located on every campus, hidden away behind a trick wall, or a supposedly empty tower, or in one case, under the River Thames itself. It meant that most students who chose to attend the university spent a great deal of time in the muggle world, and while most disagreed with the arrangement, Ginny loved it.

She had lived in the magical world her entire life, and at first thought that adapting would be near impossible, but she had taken to it quicker than she had believed possible. Within six months, she had met Sam, moved into a flat with him just off High Street, gotten her first job at a muggle club, and established herself a group of friends wonderful enough to rival those she had had at Hogwarts.

As far as she was concerned, life was perfect. She loved her classes, and seeing as how it was now coming on her fourth year at Oxford, she had opted to take summer classes as well. She worked two jobs, the one at the club, the other at the café. She lived with her absolute best friend, and any free time she had she spent among her other friends.

Things certainly had changed. In the true Oxford fashion, she lived almost nearly muggle now, though she still carried her wand everywhere she went. She was only a year away from receiving her degree in General Studies with an emphasis on Business Management (dull, but highly useful, believe it or not). The only thing that bothered her was that she had less time for her family than ever. None of her brothers ever wanted to come to visit, and trips back to the Burrow had become less and less frequent as the years had passed.

Somehow she was always just too busy to make time to visit her parents, or any of her old friends. There was homework, class, and her new friends, both of her jobs, errands, shopping… if it wasn't one thing it was another.

Still, she was pleased with her life, and her mum wrote on a monthly basis, and there was always the holidays.

Right now, however, she was not pleased. She had woken up late this morning, fallen down the stairs, had to walk to class since she had forgotten her bike at the café, arrived late and had to wait for the stairs to empty, and now since she had forgotten her book, she had to wait at the bottom of the tower again. It was becoming increasingly annoying. Things might have been better if she had a nice relaxing afternoon planned, but instead she was going to have to skip lunch to run to the back and pay some bills, then she needed to rush home to take a quick shower before her shift and the club, and the rest of her night would be spent sloshing alcohol down a bunch of drunk teenagers throats while ear splitting music rattled her bones.

It didn't help, but Ginny glared at the students as they shuffled down the stairs like her situation was their fault. There seemed to be an endless stream of them, how many people did this tower hold anyways? All she needed to do was dash up and grab her book.

Thirty minutes later, Ginny had finally succeeded in rescuing her text from the middle of a crowded classroom, and was now taking her anger out on the pavement. The stomping didn't do much but jar her already pounding head, but it eased away some of the anger. Now, she would be lucky to make it to the bank at all, and if she didn't pay her bills for rent, her landlord would charge her extra. Extra, was something she could definitely not afford. Even though she had a slight scholarship to Oxford and worked two jobs, she was as poor as ever.

Thinking along that line, and hoping she hadn't left her bankcard back at the flat, she cursed and swung her bag back in front of her as she walked. She should have known that she wasn't good at multitasking while walking, but she riffled through her bag anyways, looking for her wallet, and trying to remember where she had left it last. Which is why, when she tripped on crack in the sidewalk, she wasn't surprised to find herself falling face forward for the second time that day.

What she hadn't expected was to find her flight interrupted by a set of muscular arms.

"You okay?" A man's voice said, as she was picked up and placed firmly back on the ground.

Ginny's vision wavered for a second; she was feeling slightly dizzy. "Thanks, I just… tripped,"

"Ginny?"

She recognized her name, and her head snapped up to examine the man who had saved her from another spill, then her focus broke back into place. "Harry?" Was her voice always that high?

The boy, now man, she hadn't seen since Hogwarts was standing right in front of her, still holding onto her arm to keep her straight, mirroring her look of disbelief.

"What on earth are you doing here?" She managed, reclaiming her arm and placing it on her hip instead. Somehow, she rather suspected there was a big silly grin on her face.

"Me, what are you doing here?" A look of realization then embarrassment dawned on his face. "Oh, right, you're Mum told me…"

"That I was taking classes here?" She finished, smiling at the blush that crept over his face.

"Uh, yeah, sorry I forgot," he said, grinning apologetically. Then he stood back and gave her a sweeping appraisal that made her blush. "You're looking really good, Ginny. I don't think I've seen you since…"

"Bill's wedding," Ginny finished, taking the opportunity to examine him as well. He looked older, but good, a bit taller than he had been before, more filled out, more muscular. He didn't look like a scrawny underfed boy anymore, and he stood a lot straighter than she remembered. Then again, he had a lot more to be proud about these days. She had seen his picture in magazines or the newspaper over the years, but moving photos hadn't done him justice. He looked much better in person. "You are looking very good yourself."

"Bill's wedding," Harry repeated, sounding amazed. "Has it really been that long? That was years ago?"

"I know," she added dryly. Actually it hadn't been that long, she had seen him about three years ago after he had returned home from his search for horacrux's with Ron and Hermione. However she had remained up in her bedroom, and only seen him from the top of the stairs, choosing instead to hide away. The hurt of him leaving, and breaking up with her had still be fresh in her mind. Then after that, all of their visits to the Burrow for holidays had never overlapped. She was always gone by the time he came or vise versa.

"So, what are you doing in town?" She asked to take her mind of the past. "I heard you're an Auror these days."

"Yeah," he said, running a sheepish hand through his hair. Ginny couldn't resist a little smile at that. It was so Harry and she hadn't realized how much she had liked the gesture. "I'm in town for work actually. I've got some lectures, and a few meetings and such for the Ministry."

"That's great," she said, and immediately she wondered how long he was in town for, though she wasn't sure it was appropriate to ask. He really did look good, and it had been so long since they had seen one another… would it be too forward to see if he wanted to grab a cup of coffee or something? To stall those types of thoughts, she smiled again. "How's the Ministry?" She asked then mentally cringed, how's the ministry? What kind of question was that? She could have asked about Hermione or her brother, or something else, but the Ministry?

A weird twitch crossed his face. "Uh, the Ministry is fine, it says hello by the way."

She shared a laugh at her expense. "Sorry, I've got a lot on my mind, my day has been absolute…" wincing she remembered why she had been rushing down the street, falling into strangers (or surprisingly not strangers) arms. "Bugger, I forgot, I'm late for an appointment at the bank," she held her wrist up to get a look at her watch and moaned. She was already an hour off schedule thanks to this run in and her forgetfulness. "Listen, Harry, I've got to go, or my whole day is going to be off schedule."

"Oh," he said, looking a little disappointed. Ginny couldn't help smiling at that, did he want to talk to her more? "Well, I'm in town for a few more days…" She stood a little straighter, waiting for him to ask it. "And we haven't seen each other in a long time…" Her mouth twitched, he sure was taking a long time with it. "And I would really like to catch up…" Almost there, Harry, Ginny thought, mentally cheering him on, now all he had to do was finish. "Would you like to meet me for lunch tomorrow?"

Her mouth was already ready to agree, before her brain caught up with her racing heart. "Blast it, I can't, I have work until six tomorrow."

"Dinner?" He said, jumping at the idea, looking about as anxious as Ginny felt. His hair was falling into his eyes again, and he looked good in that t-shirt, but they were old friends weren't they… but old friends with _history_, that had to count for something right? "I mean, if you're busy," he said, his hand ran through his hair again, brushing the hair out of his eyes. "Then maybe you could do dinner, if you don't have plans already," he added, eyes widening.

"No," she said, and then blinked. "I mean, no I don't have plans, not I don't want to go to dinner. Oh, screw it Harry, how about you just meet me tomorrow night at the Kings Garden it's just up that way, the porter at the gate can tell you how to get there."

He glanced up the street, and frowned, but nodded nonetheless. "Er—yeah, I can probably find my way there."

"I'll send you an owl with directions," she said, feeling bad for not having the time to explain now. "But, listen, I've really got to go, I'm already ages late."

"Right, right," he said stepping out of the way and back up against the building. "I'll just see you tomorrow then."

"Sure," she said, trying not to blush, and adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "Tomorrow."

Then, before she had a chance to find a reason to stick around she took off down the street and headed for the bank. She didn't know whether to crawl into a dark alley, or if she was elated enough to simply float through the rest of the day. Had she really just run into Harry Potter of all people? Her ex-boyfriend from her Hogwarts days, her brother's best friend, his mother's practically adopted son, her longest running crush ever?

On the one hand, he _had_ broken up with her, and had reinforced that sentiment through the entire summer after her fifth year, he hadn't made any effort to contact her since, even though he spent a great deal of time with her parents and all of her brothers. She knew because her mum wrote a report on Harry's going-ons every couple of months, and she knew he stopped by the Burrow for visits more than her. Then again, she had loved Harry since she was old enough to know his name, and he had been looking very, _very_ good. Not to mention that he had seemed just as flustered by their interaction as she had, and had given her that hungry look she remembered him having back at Hogwarts. Still, they were just meeting under the pretence of friends… right?


	2. Of the First Magnitude

Love Is Like A Rose

By liquid lily

Chapter 2: Of the First Magnitude

All throughout work that evening Ginny caught herself daydreaming.

She was thinking about Harry, something she hadn't done since her years at Hogwarts when she was just a silly girl with a crush. Sure they had dated for a few months back in her fifth year, but she had dated a lot of boys back then. Besides, five years was a long time. People changed a lot over five years, especially at this age. It was like a lifetime had passed. And dating Harry Potter back then didn't really count as a committed relationship. It was nice to have him as a boyfriend, and they had been able to spend _some_ time together. But really he had been too busy with Dumbledore, Voldemort, and having the weight of the entire wizarding world on his shoulders. Also she had been in her O.W.L. year and had somehow managed to blow him off as much as he had her.

Ginny cut the corner of the coffee bar too close and tripped, barely managing to save the pile of used dishes she was carrying from crashing to the floor. She shook her head to herself and pushed her way into the back. Really, she didn't know what business she had being a waitress, she was dead clumsy. Sometimes she thought she could even make Tonks look as graceful as a ballerina.

What _had_ Harry seen in her all those years ago? Most people in school had liked her, it wasn't like she was ever lacking in friends or dates. And she had worked _really_ hard to just be a friend to Harry after Hermione had told her to give up on her crush. But when she was young she had actually stuck her elbow in the butter dish, and hadn't been able to meet his eye let alone speak with him. Then there had been that horrible valentine in first year… It wasn't the shortest relationship she had ever had. Surprisingly enough it was probably the longest. What had it been four months, five maybe?

She shook her head again, her thoughts breaking back into reality as she finished loading up her tray for the next delivery. However many months it had been, she knew it hadn't really lasted long. But when he had broken up with her that had been the end of their friendship really. He had gone off to save the world, she had been left at Hogwarts and then she had moved to Oxford, end of story. She hadn't even seen him more than once or twice over the past few years, maybe for one year at Christmas and a few of Ron's birthdays, but no more than that.

Another sharp pain shocked Ginny out of her thoughts as a customer pushed away from the table too quickly and hit her back with the heavy chair. Quickly she reached out another hand to balance the bowls of soup on her tray and sighed in relief when she only managed to spill a few scalding drops on her arm. It stung, but really the pain wasn't so bad. The customer apologized, but she quickly reassured him that she was fine; no harm was done and delivered the soups to table five. Honestly, when she had agreed to help out a few afternoons a week she had never known how _painful_ being a waitress was going to be. Somehow she ended up going home every night with bruises on her hips and burns on her hands, not to mention the cuts that frequented different areas of her body when she managed to drop the dishes. She wasn't sure how much of the traumas were associated with the job and how much was just lumped into being clumsy Ginny Weasley, but she was pretty willing to bet that Claire never had this much trouble.

The moment she passed back into the kitchen and out of the chaos of the floor her thoughts returned to Harry. She had always known that they would break up. Harry wasn't the sort of person who managed well in relationships of any sort. Besides she never could have expected him to remain with her while his thoughts were so obviously elsewhere. And she would have been the worst girlfriend, friend and witch in the world if she had insisted that he do anything else but leave her and focus all of his energy on getting rid of Voldemort. She knew he had responsibilities and no matter how much she had liked him she would never deny that she shouldn't have been one of them. Even if Harry had insisted that they remain together she doubted that she would have been able to hold onto the respect she had for him then. No, the timing had been wrong, back then they were doomed from the beginning.

"You feeling alright Gin?" Marie asked when she caught Ginny nearly dropping a plate full of chocolate ice cream.

She steadied the confection, placed it careful on the counter far from her desert maiming hands and brushed a few stray hairs out of her face. Marie was always able to tell when she was distracted by something, and she had been shooting looks at Ginny every time she came through the kitchen to deliver or pick up an order.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said as she smiled sweetly at her boss. "I just have a date tonight—or at least I think it's a date. Really I'm just meeting up with an old friend, and anyways—oh!" Ginny collapsed down on one of the stools at the bar in the kitchen and ran a hand through her flyaway hair. She sure was a mess tonight. "Sorry, Marie. I'm not making much sense am I?"

The older woman didn't try hard to hide her small smile, but somehow she managed to give Ginny a stern look all the same. "No, dear, you aren't, are you?" She returned her attention to the pot of pasta that was cooking on the burner and stirred it carefully.

Ginny watched as the wooden spoon moved in slow deliberate circles around the pot and sighed. She could spare a few moments or two to talk with her boss. She only had four tables right now and table two would be fine without their desert for a minute longer. "I just can't stop thinking about it," she admitted. "I know it's silly but…"

"You haven't had a date in a while have you?" Marie said, one eyebrow arching delicately over her spectacles though her attention was entire on the task at hand.

Though she had been immediately ready to argue that fact Ginny had to stop and think about and realized that it really _had_ been a while. "Not since… Cain, I think… last… what was it… April? Well almost three months, that's not so bad really." She furrowed her brow and blinked. "Is it? No, of course not. Anyways," she hurried on, not really wanting to think about her non-existent love life. "It's not _really_ like a date, just meeting up with an old friend."

She let her eyes wander for a moment while Marie drained the boiling water from the pot and caught sight of the chocolate ice cream still sitting in front of her and swore. The sides were already beginning to melt. What had she been thinking sitting down right in front of the stove?

"Damn," she cursed again and jumped to her feet. "I've got to get this out. Oh and I forgot I need another order of bread for table nine, their kid won't eat anything else we have on the menu."

She jumped to her feet, gathered her tray and returned back to the fray of the floor. It wasn't busy by any means, and she was usually able to handle crowds with relative ease, especially at her other job, but somehow she was still managing to muck everything up and she still had two more hours left on her shift. By the time she made it back to the kitchen, after giving several more refills, sitting a new table full of university students and taking all of their orders, as well as taking the desert order for table three, Claire had arrived.

Both Delafonte's turned to her, Claire just managing to catch the glass that nearly feel from her hand as she pushed her way into through the door.

"Sorry, Claire!" Ginny apologized as she let the other girl accept the other three glasses from her hand, balancing them with a great deal more ability than she could ever hope to have.

"Do you see what I mean?" Marie said, clearly scolding Ginny. She had stepped at the kitchen and was standing at the bar that separated the cooking area and the small lounge area that was in place for the employees to sit and have dinner or where she herself often sat and did paperwork and whatnot.

Claire smirked, and passed her mother to deposit the dirty glasses in the sink. "Clearly, I mean, she's an absolute wreck!"

Ginny knew how to take a joke so she just smirked at her best friend and passed the rest of her tray full of dirty dishes over the counter for her friend to clean and took a seat back on her stool.

Marie regarded her carefully as she rubbed her still wet hands on the hem of her apron. "Which is why I think you need to knock off early tonight, dear."

It took a moment for Ginny to register the words, but as soon as she did her face broke into a huge grin. "Oh, Marie you're serious?" The older woman nodded, but then rolled her eyes at her daughter when Ginny jumped off her stool and squealed. "This is fantastic!" Then her thoughts drifted back to all of the tables back out on the floor still currently demanding her attention and she sobered up. "Only if you're sure you won't need the help tonight?"

Claire cut off the tap to the sink and ducked her head so she could see Ginny clearly. "Come on, Gin. We've been doing this for years longer than you. I think I know how to handle a couple of tables. Besides," she smirked at her moth and flipped beautiful golden locks over her shoulder. "Sam is going to be by in an hour."

With a click of her tongue Marie turned away from them as she let out a string of French. She wasn't able to catch ever word (even though both Marie and Claire had been trying to teach her for years—she wasn't anything near as fluent as they were), but she understood the gist and laughed.

"Yeah?" Claire retorted in an angry tone, though she was smiling. "Well, I hate to break it to you Mama but without my friends you wouldn't even have a business! Every single one of your employees are my friends!"

Marie shrugged as if this were not so significant and grinned at Ginny. "And she thinks I couldn't just post a want ad up at any of the universities and be flooded with needy students who would kill for a minimum wage job with tips."

Despite the offer to get off work early Ginny found herself sitting in the kitchen listening to Marie and Claire banter for a few more minutes back and forth. Then she found herself treated to another impromptu French lesson when she had asked after the meaning of a word she hadn't understood while Marie went to handle the floor. By that time Sam had arrived with his dog Mickey on his heels another hour had passed. Then she had to fix the dog a bowl of scraps to get him settled on the floor to free up Sam to put on his apron help with the dinner crowd that was rolling in. Somehow she had been given permission to get off work early and she had still managed to linger around until nearly the end of her original shift.

When she realized how much time she had wasted she cursed and apologized to Marie for interrupting a story about a trip to the Louve when Claire had been a little girl. "I hadn't realized the time, I've really got to get out of here!"

"You're leaving now?" Sam asked as he barged into the kitchen with another tray of dirty dishes. "What are you leaving early for?" He knocked the extra turkey left over from a club sandwich into a bowl on the floor for Mickey who devoured it eagerly. Then he set the tray of dishes down on the counter, pulled out his wand and cleaned everything up magically.

Ginny rolled her eyes at him. "Honestly, Sam. You're the only one who has to go and be so flashy. You don't see any of us doing that do you?"

Sam flashed her a grin and levitated the plates to their proper positions as a further demonstration on his obvious talent. "Yeah, so? Marie's a muggle, and the rest of you are just plain stupid if you ask me. You and Claire are both witches and you still use the sink half the time."

"Because this is _Oxford_," Ginny said as if this were the obvious answer and tried to nod her head at Marie for her agreement.

"Don't look at me," Marie said as she watched Sam's work with a look of satisfaction. "Why do you think I hired all of Claire's friends? You lot are an absolute godsend compared to what I had to work with before. You should have seen how stressful this place was before we found out that Claire was a witch."

Sam smiled at her cockily. "Enough of a godsend to give me a raise?"

She snorted and returned to the pastries she was now working on. "Not that great Sam, so you can stop fishing."

"Fine, then how about letting me get out of here early instead of Ginny here?" He said, pressing his luck again. Marie didn't both responding so he grunted and turned back to Ginny who was laughing into a hand. "Anyways, Ginny, since my boss doesn't want to discuss my _obvious talents_," he flashed Marie another pleading look which went unnoticed. "What's up with cutting out early tonight?"

"She, has a date," said Marie.

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "Oh ho! Is that so, my dear ickle Ginnikins?" He teased, looking dramatically shocked. "And when exactly were you going to tell your best friend?"

"She already told me," Claire quipped as she burst into the room. She announced a new order to her mother and then turned back to Sam with a smile. "She told me earlier this afternoon actually," her smile turned into a scowl and she poked him hard on the chest. "And I'm so glad you're back here gabbing about it while I'm out there busting my bum with the dinner rush. Besides there's a table of students out there with your name on it looking like they're ready for their bill."

Blinking, Sam pretended as if he didn't notice the girl standing in front of him and glanced back at Marie. "I still don't get why Ginny gets to get out of her early. I mean _I_ have a date later. Why doesn't anyone make a big deal about that?"

"Because," Marie said, placing several plates on Claire's tray carefully. "You have only been here twenty minutes, while she has been here all afternoon, and—I like girls better, Sam."

"Damn," Sam said snapping his fingers, which fell just to the side of Claire's ear. "Wrong gender."

Claire pushed him none too gently and gathered up the order that Marie had gathered for her. "Besides, Sam," she told him, "You going on a date is hardly anything special." She balanced the tray on an upraised hand carefully and turned to give Ginny a wink. "And you, have a date with _me_ tomorrow to tell me all about it."

"I promise, Claire," Ginny told her.

"And you, get out on that bloody floor!" Claire yelled at Sam one more time.

Once again he decided to take no notice of her and relaxed casually against the counter. "Once she tells me whom she's going out with," he told them. Ginny twitched her lips and Claire glared, but it was enough. He sighed his defeat and picked up a basket of rolls. "Fine, fine, I know when I'm outnumbered. Honestly, Marie," he told their boss. "I think you've got that whole gender thing mixed up. How can you possibly like them more than me?" He turned to Ginny with a soft smile, "alright, lamb, get out of here, I'll see you back at the flat later."

Genuinely happy, Ginny smiled at him. "Thank you, Sammy. I really am running late." Then she kissed her friend on the cheek as a goodbye before he could join Claire on the floor, waved to her boss and slipped out the back door.

And somehow even though she had been given the okay to duck out early to get ready for her date, Ginny still managed to be late.

He met her in the King's Garden at Magdalen College, looking his best in a pair of dark trousers and a white shirt that somehow reminded her of their old Hogwarts uniform. He certainly had come a long way since his baggy jeans and oversized shirt days of the Dursley's, though not without an obvious conscious effort. Ginny noted his appearance with approval, and tried not to feel too elated at the fact that he hadn't tried to change his charmingly messy hair after all these years. She had always like his hair.

As she approached he straightened and pulled away from the branch of yellow roses he had been examining and smiled.

"The yellow ones are my favorite, too," Ginny said as she approached, sparing a brief glance for the roses before turning her eyes on Harry again. "You found your way here alright, I take it?"

Harry flashed her a brilliant smile, and she felt oddly pleased with herself that it didn't have the same effect that it used to. She still felt that strange flutter, even after all these years, but at least she wasn't swooning or stuttering or anything.

"Actually, no I didn't," he said, and to her delight he blushed. "I'm afraid I'm hopeless with that sort of thing, I have absolutely no sense of direction." He adjusted his glasses rather nervously. "I had to apparate actually."

"Cheater," Ginny teased, though she blushed rather brightly when he bent down to sever a beautiful yellow bloom from the vine with his wand and guessed his intent. "You could get into a lot of trouble with tricks like that you know," she told him, though she was looking hopefully at the supposed gift. She really did love the yellow roses.

"Really?" He asked as he carefully pulled all of the thorns off from the stem. "How is that?"

"This is a primarily muggle city, the magic community here is very strict about the use of magic in public places. If you were caught doing that there are all sorts of repercussions."

He blinked, but didn't seem to be paying too much attention. "I don't think they would do anything to me," he said in an odd sort of voice then he reached the bare rose out to her and smiled. "Besides, you should have one if they are your favorite."

Ginny accepted the gift awkwardly, wishing that she wasn't so prone to blushing. Already she could feel her face turning red. "You know," she told him, hoping to distract him from her red checks, while she suspected that she was talking much faster than necessary. "It used to be that stealing one of the King's roses was a crime punishable by death."

Enchanting as ever, Harry winked at her. Really, she didn't think he was aware of just how dashing he was. "I think it will be okay just this once, as long as we keep it between us. So," he went on, seemingly as eager to change the subject as she was, Ginny was thrilled to see that his cheeks were slightly rosy too. And he ran a hand through his messy hair, one of his old nervous habits that he obviously hadn't lost over the years. "Where did you have in mind for dinner?"

"Hmm?" Ginny asked, not quite paying attention to what he was saying, she had been watching the movement of his hand as it had rested on the back of his neck and started to scratch just below his hair. "Oh, right dinner." She lifted a hand to rub the back of her own neck, suddenly feeling as if she was the one with the itch, and thought. "Actually it's getting a little late for dinner, I'm sorry it took me so long by the way…" he waved a hand as if it was forgiven so Ginny went on. "So, I thought we could just go to this pub I know up the way for a few drinks. They'll have something to eat there, if you're hungry."

He shrugged. "It's up to you Ginny, this is your city, not mine," he frowned. "I don't really know anything about Oxford, so I'm depending on you for this one."

Ginny's eyes lit up at the mention of her city. She absolutely adored Oxford; it was her favorite place in all of England. "Oh, it's absolutely fascinating, Harry. You know the muggles call it 'the city of dreaming spires.' Even witches and wizards acknowledge its ancient history. It is one of the very founding cities of magic itself."

Ginny looked around at the empty grounds of the Kings Garden, most people would be lounging around the Quad at this hour or finishing up with night classes and making their way to their dormitories or flats. It really was getting quite late, and the porter would want to lock up the gates soon, and even though Ginny had a key to the side gate she didn't really like to use it. "Here, why don't we walk to the pub and I'll tell you about it some more, it's only a few blocks away. Just behind that wall over there," she pointed beyond the wall in what she hoped was the right direction. The city really was like a maze, and as long as she had lived in it, she had to admit that sometimes she did get turned around.

"Sure, Ginny, I'd like that," Harry responded.

So, they walked together down Oxford's cobbled-stoned streets and Ginny told Harry all about her favorite city from both the muggle and magical perspective. She wasn't sure that Harry was entire _that_ interested in it, but he listened politely, and she really did love talking about it.

"Actually, the city is almost entirely muggle," Ginny admitted. "For all it is one of the most magically potent areas in Europe. Purebloods would love to have claim to it, but it's rarely ever talked about because of all of its muggle history and inhabitants. But there is still a great magical population here—mostly muggle borns and half bloods since there is very little magical culture here and the laws are very strict about using magic.

"There are only two magical pubs, a small branch of the Ministry, one bookshop and one potions shop in the whole city. Oh, well, and the University branch of course, but otherwise that's it. There isn't even a robe shop here! None of the witches and wizards here wears them, most rarely even use magic at all; they live more like muggles instead. My university friends almost all wear muggle clothes, use muggle banks, use muggle money and shop at muggle markets—even have muggle jobs!"

Harry laughed a little at her enthusiasm and Ginny realized she probably sounded a little too surprised at that, but she couldn't help it. To her, this was such a polar opposite way of life to the one she had lived until her graduation from Hogwarts. She had been completely immersed in the magical world since birth and hadn't had the muggle upbringing he had.

"I can tell you really love this place," Harry said, giving her a sidelong glance as they turned a corner.

"I just think it's fascinating is all," Ginny said feeling slightly defensive now she had time to think about how enthusiastic she had been. "I mean there is so much magical influence here that even the muggles have benefited from it. So many artists, philosophers and writers have benefited influenced by the city's magic, without ever even realizing it." Ginny paused to take an exhilarated breath; she always got caught up when she talked about her home. "Anyways, it has given me a great appreciation for muggles. It was hard to get used to living outside the magical world at first, but now," she shrugged. "I just love it."

Harry chuckled. "I'm glad you've been able to adapt so easily, most purebloods would have a spot of trouble changing lifestyles."

"I know," Ginny agreed, rolling her eyes. She had plenty of run ins with those type of witches and wizards. "Most purebloods that come to university drop out after the first few months because they don't like the lifestyle. I'm actually one of the only purebloods left in my year, there are only," she paused in thought as she counted in her head. "Five others that I can think of."

A familiar sight came into view and Ginny pointed ahead to an almost hidden entrance in the wall, which was attracting a steady crowd. "There it is," she told him as if proud to have discovered it. "It's a garden pub—and a muggle one, so mind the magic—but you have to walk through the alley before you get to the main rooms."

Ginny led the way through and then left Harry to get drinks while she found them a table where it was relatively quiet. The pub was a popular one, so it was pretty crowded already, but most of the crowd wanted to be around the excitement of the bar. If they stayed at the table and kept in the back that should have been left alone.

Harry came up to the table as a group of Ginny's mates from class were passing by. Ginny waved them goodbye before turning the hand over to urge Harry to sit down in the same gesture. Then he passed her the whiskey and coke she had ordered.

"That's a pretty strong drink," Harry commented, gesturing to the glass at hand while Ginny took her first sip.

She started to defend herself, but noticed that he had gotten the same thing for himself and her lips twisted into a smile. "Cheers, Harry," she said, raising her glass to his, solidifying the toast. "To old friends."

"Old friend's," he echoed and they each took a long swig of their drink.

"So tell me, Harry," Ginny said, playing with the condensation that was forming on the edge of her glass. "What have you been doing with your life lately?"

Harry shrugged and took another sip. "Not much in all honesty. I just got back from Paris, actually. Before that I spent a few months in Madrid."

Grinning, Ginny shook her head at him. "Honestly, Harry, letting me run off about little old Oxford when you've been traveling around the continent!"

Surprisingly, he seemed to blush a little. "It's nothing really. The Ministry always wants to send me off to all the conferences, and I can't say I mind it much," he fingered the glass that was between his hands and watched the contents swirl inside. "It's a welcome change from what I spend most of my time doing," he looked up, smile rising to his lips again. "And it's not like I'd have nearly enough to say about any of the places that I've been to entertain you. Mostly I just see inside of the foreign Ministries and my hotel room, that's it."

Ginny felt herself gaping at the comment. "You mean you get to travel around for free, to attend a few measly conventions and you don't even take the time to sight see?" She laughed at the bashful expression that took over his face. "Do you have any idea how much I would kill for an opportunity like that? I'll be lucky to travel any further than the coast my whole life!"

"Don't say that, Ginny," Harry said, suddenly stern. "You're parents took you to Egypt once, right? I remember Ron telling me about how the twins almost locked you in a tomb."

"That was Percy, not me, and that wasn't funny," she responded, trying to keep the grin from her face, though the memory did make her laugh. Mum had been so furious! "Besides I was what… twelve? And we only got to go because Dad won all that money." She laughed cynically to herself. "I'm all on my own now and I'll be paying off university expenses for years!" She shook her head and decided to move onto another topic. She really didn't feel like discussing her debt with a man who probably had more money than any wizard in Britain. "So, I heard you moved in with that git of a brother of mine."

"Ron?" Harry laughed, eyes dancing as he took another sip of his drink. "Talk about wizards who have a hard time adjusting to muggle life. I don't think Ron's ever even used our front door. In all honesty, I don't think he would even recognize the outside of our building if he was walking down the street!"

Sharing in the laugh, Ginny tried to imagine it and wound up with the mental picture of Ron running around London banging on doors asking passerbies if they knew where he lived. "Yeah, I'd say that sounds about right" she agreed. At first things had been hard for her to adjust to when she had moved to Oxford, but she had made friends quickly and they were as willing to help, as she was to learn. However, her brothers, she was sure, would be utterly hopeless as muggles. The one time her favorite brother Bill had even visited had been an utter disaster, and he was one of the smarter ones.

"Well, contrary to what the Prophet prints, my life isn't very exciting," Harry said in a slight disappointed tone. "I just keep myself occupied with work mostly. It's not much, but you know," he threw back the rest of his drink and set it down on the table gently, giving it a thoughtful look. "How about you Ginny? What are your plans for the future?"

Ginny shrugged. "I really don't know. I mean I never imagined that I would go to school beyond Hogwarts until I got this scholarship. It doesn't pay all the bills, but I'm lucky I got it or else I never would have been able to come at all. But, I had no more of an idea of what I wanted to do then than I did now," she sipped at her own drink, trying to catch up with Harry. "This will be my last year at university, and Mum wants me to come home when the last term is over, and I have a few friends who want me to travel with them for a while, before we have to get serious jobs and such. But I'm really not sure what I want yet, I mean," she looked away briefly, her eyesight following a couple she recognized from her Tuesday morning class. "I want to do something, start working, I'm just not sure what yet."

"That's understandable," Harry agreed. "Sometimes I wish I hadn't jumped at working with the Ministry so quickly." He looked down at his empty glass a little sadly. "Half the time I think they just hired me because they can send me to all the fancy events and lectures." He looked back at Ginny, forcing a smile. "Want another drink?"

She retuned the smile, feeling a little sorry for Harry. People would always try to use him to their own advantage. All the poor boy had ever wanted to do since Hogwarts was become an Auror so he could at least feel responsible for some of the fame that he had acquired, and they had him attending conferences as their poster boy. "Yeah, sure," she told him as she shot back the rest of her drink and passed the empty glass to Harry. "Make sure the next one's a double. Tell Perry," she pointed at the blond bartender who was flirting shamelessly with a girl in a low cut green dress. "It's for me, he knows how I like them."

"A double?" Harry said blinking. "And what would your brother say to that?" He teased, and then to her surprise he deftly tossed her glass up in the air and caught it expertly with his so that they sat stacked on top of one another.

"Show off," she muttered, feeling embarrassed that she was the bartender and waitress and she couldn't even do that. "Hopefully they won't ever know," she teased back. Already she was starting to feel a slight buzz from the alcohol. Despite her occupation, she really wasn't a heavy drinker, though when necessary she could hold her alcohol. Experience had taught her that she could drink any one of her friends under the table, but the morning after was rarely ever worth it. She got hangovers from a sniff of cooking sherry that a hangover potion couldn't even cure.

Ten drinks later however, found Ginny telling a very different story about her tolerance. Harry had matched her drink for drink, even surpassing her numbers before a punk band had started up at the pub and it had become too noise to talk anymore. They had moved down the street to a less crowded pub that Ginny didn't know as well to finish off the night. By last call, when the pub started to shut down, they had stumbled out into the street more drunk than Ginny remembered being in a long time. They had made it a late night to begin with, but two in the morning still found the pair walking sloppily around the city streets telling old stories about their school friends.

"And, Hannah Abbot!" Ginny cried out, trying hard not to laugh though the drunken giggles escaped from her lips anyways. "She married that awful… awful… Prisley boy last spring! He was three years younger than me even! He had barely even graduated Hogwarts!"

Harry snorted gleefully; Ginny had also noticed that he had an unusual tendency to giggle. "See, I did not know that." He responded as they turned another corner. "You know we should have caught up ages ago, this is really fun."

"More fun than my brother?" She asked, fluttering her eyelashes comically.

When he turned his head to give her a critical look she noticed that his eyes were looking very glassy, but didn't comment as she suspected that hers were as well. "Well," he told her as if considering the question very seriously. "Maybe more fun than Ron and certainly Percy…" Ginny made a face at that, god she hoped she was more fun than Percy. "But I don't know about the twins…"

Suddenly defensive, Ginny pushed him roughly and was rewarded with a loud 'oof!' as he crashed into the wall followed by another round of giggles. "I'll have you know that I taught the twins half they knew, I was quite the little terror when I was a little girl." Harry pushed himself away from the wall and grinned at her. "Ask my Mum," she shouted again, though she was smiling again, too. "She'll tell you. Less fun than the twins, honestly!" She started walking again, stumbling a bit as she picked the pace back up.

Harry quickly caught up, still laughing. "Okay, I consent, you're more fun than your brothers."

"Good," Ginny slurred, suddenly trying very hard to concentrate on walking and not falling over. Unfortunately she failed miserably, as her next step caused her to trip over her own heels and fall back against a hard stone wall.

"Ginny!" Harry cried out, holding out his arms as though to catch her even though he stood several feet away. As she slumped down the wall onto the ground he adapted his posture by reaching his hands up and placing both on top of his head as if he had been the one to just crack their skull.

"'S… okay!" Ginny cried out, trying to push herself away from the wall. It took a few tries, but she managed. "I broke my heel, but it's going to be okay!" She pulled off a hell and showed it to Harry then promptly kicked off the other one and threw them both to the street. It hit somewhere in her mind that she could use magic to fix the shoe, but her thoughts were becoming very fuzzy, and she really didn't want to put the damn things back on.

"Don't lose your shoes," Harry said, still pointing to the heels on the street as Ginny started walking away. He noticed her departure a beat later and turned to chase after her calling, "Don't lose me either!" When he caught up to her just as she stopped and started spinning around, looking down all of the cobbled streets trying to catch her bearings.

"Wow, Ginny, you're so short!" Harry exclaimed when he caught up with her and she opened one eye to stare up at him. Indeed now she had lost the extra inches her heels had provided, her eyes were about level with his shoulders.

"Am not," she complained childishly as she moved past him to the wall so she could have something to lean against, her legs were getting tired of walking.

Harry seemed to ignore her and pointed to a well-lit area near further down the road. "Oh, look—there's my hotel, I found it!" He looked around for Ginny, but she didn't feel like responding.

The shoes hadn't been very comfortable, but now she was stepping on hard little pebbles and didn't like that much either. So she had found a nice patch of road and slid down the wall so that she could rest her head against it.

"Oy, wake up!" Harry called, trying to catch her attention. "I found it—and you're missing it!"

She blinked at him drunkenly, just able to see Harry's vague outline in the dark. She waved a hand at the figure and then let it fall heavily to her lap. She had just realized how drunk she really was and now all she cared about doing was going to sleep, even if she was on the street using a bit of moss on a wall as a pillow.

"Ginny?" Harry asked in a softer tone, bending over her. "What are you doing down there?"

She lifted an arm to brush Harry away, and let her eyes fall close and her head nod off down to her chest. "Sleep," she complained, wishing the noise would stop and she could get some rest.

"Ginny, are you drunk?" Harry asked incredulously just as he to managed to stumble, only catching himself on the wall at the last moment before he would have fallen down over her. "Ginny!"

But Ginny wasn't listening anymore. The alcohol had finally taken over and the last thing she remembered doing was crying out a halfhearted, 'ow' as her head hit the pavement.

The ache in her head was still present the next morning when Ginny awoke in the full swing of one of the most horrible hangovers she had ever experienced. Her head was literally pounding, and after reaching a searching hand up through the tangle of her hair she was pretty sure she felt a tentative lump on the back of her head. "Merlin," she said, stretching out in the sheets. "What the bloody hell did I do last night?" Slowly she dared to open one eye even though the slight sun that crept in through the window stung and made it water. Then a hand grasped at the sheets and she noticed how crisp they were, and not at all soft like hers, and her bed hadn't been made so neatly last night. Usually she was just lucky to be able to keep a single blanket on the bed, but she was nice and tucked in.

Immediately startled, Ginny sat up and forced herself to open her eyes. She found herself in a totally unfamiliar bed in a little room she did not recognize at all and cursed. This was one of the reasons she tried not to drink; she hated waking up in an unfamiliar place. A glance at the window confirmed that she was several stories up above the street level of the city.

Not willing to accept any realities from her drunken night, Ginny slumped back in bed and closed her eyes firmly again, willing herself back into sleep. Her head simply hurt too damn much to start facing these possibilities. She just wasn't ready to start thinking about rational things again.

It was several hours later before Ginny felt able enough to get out of bed without disturbing her stomach, too much. When she did swing the blankets over her and crawl out of bed it was to find herself still fully dressed in her jeans and t-shirt from the night before. The pins were even still in her hair, though they had shifted somewhat, and many were hanging on loose locks that were dangling around her face. One look in the mirror showed her that she looked the mess she felt.

Moving slowly, so as to not jostle her stomach or her head, Ginny searched around for her shoes and distantly remembered throwing them across the street at some point. She cursed, those had been Claire's shoes—not hers. Wishing to deal with it later she decided to venture outside of the room and see if she couldn't find some water. Her throat felt as raw and dry as parchment.

The room next to the little bedroom wasn't much bigger and she then knew herself to be in a hotel when she noticed the décor and the standard mini fridge in the corner. Then her eyes flickered to the small couch that sat opposite the television, and the man who was stretched across it rather uncomfortably.

Harry stared back at her, his eyes bloodshot and his face almost entirely devoid of emotion. "I feel like crawling in a hole and dying," he told her in a raspy voice when he noticed her looking at him.

Nodding in agreement, Ginny slinked over to a padded armchair and draped herself over it, not wanting to take the responsibility of holding her own body up for more than five seconds at a time. "Now I think I remember why my friends usually cut me off at four drinks."

Harry started to laugh, but then winced noticeably and settled back on the couch. "I don't think I can feel my legs anymore," he admitted. "But unfortunately, I do feel my stomach."

"Trust me, I feel your pain," Ginny commiserated. "How did I end up here?" She asked, though she was pretty sure she had a general idea.

In order to see her properly Harry had to turn his head to a slightly awkward angle so that his head was upside down. "You fell asleep on the road down the way and the only thing I recognized was my hotel so I brought you back here," his cheeks colored slightly. "I'm sorry I couldn't take you home, but I didn't know where you lived." He paused a beat and then smiled at her. "Was the bed comfortable?"

"Very," Ginny lied. In all honesty she probably would have been just as comfortable spending her night on the hard street. When she was drunk she was barely able to recognize what was going on around her, she wouldn't have noticed where she slept. During a particularly memorable birthday party of Sam's she had actually fallen asleep on their kitchen counter right in the middle of the party. She still got teased about it even though it had occurred during their first year at the flat. "Why don't you go and try it out until you shake that hangover," she told him. "I think I'm going to apparate back home."

"Good idea," Harry agreed, turning his vision back up to the ceiling. It didn't look like he was about to move anytime soon, one hand was draped carefully over his stomach and another was pressed against his temples. "Hey," he turned back to Ginny as if realizing something and then winced when the sudden rush proved to be too much for his head. It took him a moment to recover, and he had to squint at her since he didn't have his glasses, but he continued on. "I'm still in town for another few days, do you want to get together again?"

Ginny pushed herself out of the chair and forced herself to stretch some of the kinks out knowing that she would feel better for it. Today, she didn't intend to do anything but lie around on the couch and catch up some reading, and possibly beg Sam to make her one of his hangover potions. "Only if you promise there won't be any more booze involved. I don't think I can handle being like this again."

In response Harry groaned. "Agreed, lunch then, with coffee, tea or hot chocolate, no liquor at all."

"Tomorrow then?" Ginny confirmed. "I can meet you at the King's Garden, around noon?"

Harry's eyes had already closed but he held out one hand and gave her the thumbs up so Ginny took that as her cue and apparated home.


	3. Tell Me Who Your Friends Are

Love Is Like A Rose

By liquid lily

Chapter 3: Tell Me Who Your Friends Are, And I'll Tell You Who You Are

Ginny answered the knock at the door by kicking the handle with one of her feet as she balanced back, trying to fix an earring in her ear. "Hey, Harry," she said in welcome to the arrival as she pivoted back in order to avoid being trounced by Mickey. The dog was bounding towards the door, tail wagging, and tongue lolling out happily.

She was still furiously trying to get ready, but so far, just getting an outfit together was an accomplishment. "Sorry, but I'm running a little late. I assume you got my owl?" She slapped her head stupidly. "Of course you did, or else you wouldn't have gotten directions here would you? How about some tea while you wait?" She turned back to see Harry cornered in the doorway, trying to avoid getting his face licked by Mickey who already had both enormous paws planted firmly on his shoulders.

Mickey was doing a good job of messing up his glasses, but Harry was laughing anyways, and just attempted to push him off. "Yeah, sure. That sounds fine."

"Mickey, sit," Ginny commanded and the dog immediately rolled back on his haunches and looked up at Harry while he panted. Rolling her eyes at the dog, Ginny walked down the entrance hall and headed back towards the kitchen, all while trying to find the hole in her ear, which for some reason she couldn't get the hook through.

"Well trained dog," Harry called after her and she heard him shut the door and start making his way to where he must have seen her disappear around the corner.

"You could say that," Ginny said while she searched the pantry for the teabags. Harry reappeared on the other side of the counter at the kitchen bar and took a seat on one of the barstools. Mickey almost immediately came up and put his big awkward head in his lap. Ginny could tell because she could see his ears sticking up above the counter. "You're new," Ginny told Harry as she caught sight of the pair. "So he likes you."

Harry seemed to be enjoying himself though; he was scratching Mickey's ears with a big smile on his face so Ginny didn't see any reason to lock Mickey up. "I always wanted a dog," he commented. "The Dursley's never let me have one and you really can't have one in the city."

Ginny kicked shut the pantry and clicked the burner on the stove to light the teapot. "He's a big baby really," she said followed by, "Yes, I'm talking to you," when Mickey rolled his big puppy dog eyes up above the counter level. "You're spoiled rotten aren't you, boy?"

"What's his name?" Harry asked, giving him one final pat on the head before pushing the dog away from his lap.

"Mickey," Ginny answered as she leaned back on the counter across from Harry so that she could wait for the water to boil.

Harry didn't respond, instead he rested his chin on the palm of one hand, with his elbow resting against the counter, and started at her.

"So how awful was your day yesterday?" Ginny said after a long pause, she just wanted to fill the silence really. Harry gave her butterflies when he looked at her like that.

He groaned at the reminder and leaned back. "Awful, absolutely horrible," he said. "I was hung-over all day," then he laughed. "You know it took me about two hours after you left to even make my way into the bedroom? I don't think I've been that sick since Ron and I celebrated graduating from Auror training."

"Me too, I didn't get anything done all day," Ginny responded. "I always forget why I try not to drink too much and then I get a reminder like that."

There was a muffled bang as someone tried to open the front door. Ginny ignored the sound, Sam always sounded like a herd of hippogriffs whenever he did anything. By now she was used to it. Harry and Mickey, however, responded attentively. The former merely tilting his head back to see if he could get a look at the new company and the latter bounding down the way, sliding on the hall rug until he crashed into Sam.

"Geoff, mutt!" Sam cried, and Ginny heard the crinkle of paper bags, Sam had finally gone to the market. "Gin, call this monster off, will you? He never listens to me!"

Ginny rolled her eyes at Harry and turned back to the stove to add the teabags. "Mickey, sit!" She called over her shoulder, and was rewarded with a grateful sigh from her flat mate.

A moment later and Sam was blundering through the door, trying to balance a handful of paper bags before he spilled the contents all over the floor. Helping him out Ginny pulled on of the bags from his arms and set it on the counter so he could do the same with his.

"Thanks, Gin," he said and gave her a welcoming peck on the cheek. Then he turned, and headed back into the hall to kick his shoes off and put his keys on the side table so he wouldn't lose them. "I dropped the film off this morning as well," he called back in as Ginny started to riffle through the bags to see what he got. "Which means I'll need you to pick that up tomorrow before you go to class or something. I'm hoping it has those pictures from our trip to Bath last month. Though I think it might have been the roll from Evan's birthday party. Anyways, my Mum wants to see them the next time we go to visit. Bath, not Evan's party I mean." He reappeared back in the doorway and bypassed her for the fridge to grab a soda. "It's getting hot out there. Do you think you could be a babe and put those away? I want to go hop in the shower."

Ginny just gave him a playful push as an answer, since she was already doing so. Really she didn't mind putting all of the things away, just getting Sam to do the shopping was a big accomplishment. Sam was a lot better at her at the waiting game to see who could outlast whom with no food in the house. Sam would just go to the café and eat his meals, but seeing all their cupboards and fridge bare always got to Ginny. She figured it probably had something to do with the way her mum had raised her.

Popping the soda open, Sam turned around and noticed Harry for the first time. "Blimey," he said, with all of his usual tact. "Harry Potter?"

Ginny spared a quick look at Harry, she knew how much he hated being called out and recognized. She was starting to wish that she had warned Sam before he came in and mucked things up, but it hadn't occurred to her earlier.

Harry was now sitting up very straight and had a very blank expression on his face. "Er—yeah," he answered, somewhat uncomfortably.

"What do you know," Sam said, blinking at Harry, and then he smiled, strode forward and stretched a hand across the counter to clasp Harry's. "Sam Green," he said. When Harry dropped his hand Sam shot Ginny an accusatory look. "You never told me you knew each other."

Ginny shrugged as nonchalantly as possible and yanked the pot off the stove so she could pout Harry a cup of tea. "Yeah, we grew up together, old friend of the family and all that."

Sam shot Harry a look as if to see if he would confirm this.

With a slight sigh, Harry nodded. "Ginny's brother Ron was my best mate at Hogwarts. I spent every summer there during school." He shrugged. "The Weasley's are the closest thing I have to a family."

A blush crept over Ginny's face, so she turned her back to the boys and concentrated on pouting the tea into two cups. It was comments like that, which always surprised her. Harry never spared himself when he was talking about her family. Sometimes, it drove her mum mad, though Ginny knew how much Harry meant to her parents. Her mum loved him like he was one of her own sons.

"Really," Sam was saying as he took another sip of coke. "See, Gin, you never told me that," he elbowed her rather painfully in the ribs and she sot him a death glare that she hoped said, "Shut the hell up right now, or I will curse you into absolute oblivion." He didn't seem to be getting the message, or if he did, he chose to ignore it. "What are you in town for?" He asked instead, turning back to Harry.

"Lectures," Harry responded and Ginny noticed that he was going on autopilot again. He always seemed to do that whenever people recognized him.

"Interesting," Sam responded, though he already seemed to be loosing track of the conversation. He was flicking bits of croissant down for Mickey to catch. Sometimes, Ginny thought that the dog a bigger attention span than him. "Alright then, it was nice meeting you, Harry." he said, dusting off his hands and setting his soda down on the counter. Harry nodded to him in acknowledgement. "I'm for the shower," he turned back to Ginny. "Any chance you picked up my dry-cleaning this morning?" He asked.

Ginny glared at him. "In your closet, and you owe me twenty pounds for it too. When did you get so much damn clothes?"

He shrugged and gave her another quick peck on the cheek, grabbed his coke up again and slid out the door. "Thanks babe, and don't forget that we have dinner with my aunt tomorrow so make sure you're free."

"Got it," Ginny called back, until she heard the bathroom door slam shut and the sound of the shower starting up. Then she turned back to Harry with a smile on her face. "Here you go," she said, passing over a cup of tea. "Let me just go and grab some shoes, and run a brush though my hair and we can get out of here."

"Sure," he said, though this time he didn't smile. Instead, Harry accepted his tea and took a sip, all while keeping a steady gaze on the counter. Ginny put it down to Sam's manners and cursed her stupid friend as she retreated back into her room to finish getting ready. She remembered how hard it was to get Harry to open up when he got into moods like that. Back at Hogwarts whenever a particularly nasty article would come out about him, or a misplaced comment from a peer, he wouldn't speak for days. It always seemed to ground him, for some reason.

It only took a few minutes for Ginny to gather up her things and when she was done Sam was still in the shower and she found Mickey's head on Harry's lap again as he scratched the dog under the chin.

"Just put the cup in the sink if you could, Harry. The kitchen is a mess, but I'll just take care of it later," she told him, scooping up her purse from the couch and pulling her keys out from under the table. She really was going to have to make a more conscious effort at becoming tidy someday. If her mum saw the daily state of her flat she would probably have heart attack.

"Sure thing, Ginny," Harry said, and she heard the soft chink of china as he complied then the heavy footsteps as he stepped out into the hallway.

"Ready?" She asked, though she was still looking around the place to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything.

"Yeah," Harry responded. "Did you have anywhere in mind for lunch?"

"Nah," Ginny said and motioned for him to follow her out. "I figured we could just stop by one of the coffee shops and order a sandwich or something. I'm really not that hungry." She waited for him to follow her out onto the landing so that she could lock the door behind them. "Is that okay with you?"

"Whatever you like, Ginny," Harry responded, already making his way down the steps.

They walked together in silence for a few minutes before Harry cleared his throat and made another attempt at conversation. "So how long have you and Sam been together?"

Ginny nearly choked on her own tongue, but somehow she managed to cough it out and glance over at Harry without laughing out loud. "I'm sorry, Sam? You mean that big idiot you met in my flat?"

"Er—yeah, that's the one," Harry said, but he seemed to be trying not to smile.

This time Ginny really did laugh out loud. "Oh, Harry, that's rich! Sam and me?"

"Stupid question then?" Harry muttered, though she could already detect a lighter note in his tone of voice. Her stomach did a little skip at that, he hadn't been jealous of Sam had he?

"No, Harry, it's fine," said Ginny. "Sam and I have been roommates since I moved here. He's probably my best friend." She laughed again. "I'm about as likely to hitch up with him as I am to marry one of my own brothers."

At that Harry winced and shot her a sorry smile. That was more like it, Ginny thought to herself, pleased that he had come back out of his reserve. Maybe it hadn't been the recognition that had shut him up back there. Maybe it had just been Sam?

"Sorry," he said. "It's just that, the way you were acting together, was a little—"

"Yeah, I know," said Ginny. "We've been living together for so long. I mean, I love Sam; I really do, but… just not… not like that. We get along famously as flat mates though. I mean the family really loves him. I think even Ron and Charlie like him, and they're the tough ones to get through."

"Well then, if Ron approves," Harry said, leaving the rest of the statement hanging. "You know, I bet that was pretty hard to accomplish," he added as an afterthought. "I can't imagine any one of your family members readily accepting you moving in with a bloke."

"Well, actually, they didn't really know for about a year," she grinned sheepishly. "They just assumed that Sam was a girl and I held off correcting them as long as I could. Then mum invited him over for my birthday," she shrugged and tried to ignore the look Harry was giving her. "But they know how it is with us, and they know he's just a good friend to me so they don't really say anything about it. But I think that mum would still rather I lived with one of my girlfriends."

"Well, at least your family knows," he said stiffly, and then he stole another quick glance at her and smiled. "You know Ginny, I really don't envy whomever dares getting involved with you. You family has got to be one tough barrier."

"Eck, tell me about it, Harry," Ginny agreed. "You know most guys at Hogwarts were too afraid to talk to me since they knew how many brothers I had?"

Harry's lips twitched. "That's not the way I remembered it."

"Shut up," she teased, wrinkling her nose at him. "Seriously though, my brothers think the last boyfriend I had was at Hogwarts." She smiled. "Here, people don't know I have a hoard of brothers. It's just easier not to let them know, not until I'm serious anyways. There's no sense in wasting a perfectly good fling with a bloke just because Ron thinks that something is going to happen to his baby sister."

"So you aren't involved with anyone currently?" Harry asked, and Ginny glanced over at him quickly to see what he meant by the question. He was staring forward, hands casually in his pockets, looking completely relaxed. Maybe she had been reading into his words too much.

"No," Ginny answered hesitantly. "Not really, I figured out last night that it's been three months since my last boyfriend." She looked up at him again. "You?" She asked, this time trying to sound as relaxed as him. She hated to admit it, but her old crush on Harry was starting to spark up again.

Harry just laughed. "Um, no…" was his firm answer. "It's hard enough to find good friends to put my trust in. I don't think that I'm going to be finding myself in a relationship any time soon."

Ginny's heart fell a little at that, partly because she felt sorry for Harry, he really did have it rough, and partly because she felt sorry for herself.

"So how long are you in town for, you never said?" Ginny asked, trying to change the subject.

A hand ran through his hair, making the ends stand up in the back, she tried not to notice. "I leave on Wednesday morning, so I've got another two days." He gave her a sly look. "I hope that you don't mind hanging out with me, I don't really know anyone else here."

"Why aren't you just apparating back to London instead of staying in a hotel?" Ginny asked. It was something she had been confused about. If Harry only had a few lectures a day, it didn't make sense for him to stay in the area when in the blink of an eye he could be in his own home.

He colored at that. "Well, actually," he sniffed a little and adjusted his glasses a bit. "My boss told me to get out of town for a week or so. He seems to think that I'm working too hard and wanted me to get a bit of a break in." He looked at his feet. "He sent me on these lectures, because he figured it would be enough work to keep me slightly preoccupied, without giving me too much to do." Harry turned and smiled at her a little sheepishly. "He made Ron promise to hex me if I tried to come home before a week was up."

"You're kidding, Harry, honey—lecturing at a university isn't a vacation! When was the last time you got out and relaxed and took a break from work?"

"Um," Harry stated, staring at his feet again. It really was starting to annoy Ginny that he did that. "I haven't had one yet actually, I mean," his lips twitched. "I don't really like having too much spare time."

She decided not to push the issue forward. She knew the war had taken up every moment of Harry's life, and after it was all over, her mum had told her that Harry had been having a hard time getting over all the destruction. Now that she thought about it, she thought she remembered Hermione complaining about what a work-a-holic Harry had become since taking up the job at the Ministry. At the time she had seemed to think that free time made Harry depressed, but Ginny had brushed the comments aside and dismissed the whole issue.

"Oh, okay," said Ginny instead. "Really, though, I would give anything for a spare moment. I feel like I'm always running late." Harry looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Okay, okay, so I _am_ always running late," she gave in. "But I go to school full time, and I work two jobs during every spare second I have so that I can pay the rent and bills. Then I have studying, I mean," she pouted. "I rarely even get to see my family. Thank goodness it's summer and I'm only taking one class, at least I have an hour or two to myself every day, and I even have one whole day off a week!" She pointed up ahead to a sandwich shop. "Let's just eat there, I don't think I can wander around the streets anymore."

Harry chuckled. "Really? You didn't seem to have any problem with it the other night."

She joined in the laugh, even though she knew it was at her expense. "Yeah, well, I think the alcohol had a lot to do with it."

"Well, it was a nice night," Harry said.

Ginny wasn't sure what he meant by that.

Lunch was actually really relaxing. They ordered soup and sandwiches and sat down in the back corner of the café so they could catch up on everything they hadn't covered the other night. It was strange, but talking with Harry came so naturally to Ginny, even after all these years. Besides, it was nice to talk with someone who she had known so long, who had gone to Hogwarts with her and who was connected to her family. She loved all of her friends in Oxford, but it was a completely different world than the one she had been a part off back at the Burrow. Her friends here didn't have any history with her, they had all come from other schools and Sam was the only one of her friends her family had ever met. Even then, the meetings between them could probably be counted on one hand.

It was also refreshing, in a vain sort of way, to talk about how much her life had changed. Ginny was very proud of what she had accomplished here. She could tell her family, but they had already heard all of her stories and she doubted they really took her seriously. With Harry, she found the opportunity to brag about all she was doing to a responsive audience. He actually proved to be very interested in everything they had done since they had last seen one another, and Ginny found herself blushing at his praise more than once.

Their sandwiches were long finished and what was left of their soup had cooled. Both were on their third cup of coffee before they noticed the time. "Oh, damn," said Ginny as she caught a glance at Harry's watch. He had been resting his arm casually on the table and the face of his watch was showing clearly. Ginny grabbed his wrist so she could get a good look at it. It was just after three o'clock. "Sorry, Harry," she said, dropping his wrist and pushing her cup of coffee away. "I was supposed to be at work five minutes ago."

His smile faltered slightly. "Are you sure you have to go?" He said with a little pout that made Ginny bite her lip. She wasn't sure he was aware of his own expression since there was a faraway look in his eyes, but it made her heart skip all the same. "Alright then," he relented. "Should I walk you back to your flat?"

Something inside Ginny jumped, the part of her that still remembered that her old family friend Harry Potter was really one of the most famous wizards of their time. Harry Potter wanted to walk _her_, scrawny little Ginny Weasley, home. "No thanks, Harry," she said, a little disappointed at her own answer. "Your hotel is closer to here anyways, and I can nip by place and grab my bike so I can get to the café. I'll just go quicker by myself."

He continued to look disappointed, but he pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and started counting out the notes. "That's fine then, do you want to do lunch again one more time before I leave?"

Ginny watched as he counted out the notes to pay the bill. "Oh, Harry, you really don't have to do that, I can pay for myself."

"I want to, Ginny," he said, looking at her straight on. "No arguing. So, tomorrow?"

She winced. "Nope, I have a completely booked schedule tomorrow. Well," she thought. "How about tonight actually? My friends and I usually hang around the café after work for a few hours and have some fun. Would you like to drop by? Say around ten?"

Grinning widely, Harry put his wallet away and stood up from the table. "I'd love to, where's this café?"

"Just down the corner, I'll owl you the directions later tonight." Ginny said. She was already starting to gather up her things and preparing to leave. Marie would kill her if she was anything over twenty minutes late. She was cutting it too close to begin with.

"I'll look forward to it," then Harry held his gaze with her just a fraction too long, just long enough to catch Ginny's breath.

What game was he playing at?

"Bye, Harry," she said. "I'll see you tonight, then."

As it was, she managed to get to the café only ten minutes later, though she had to practically run back to her place to change and grab her bike. Luckily enough, Oxford really wasn't a very big city and there were plenty of short cuts, and all of the businesses were situated around High Street anyways.

"So, Ginny, how was the date?" Marie asked the second Ginny stepped through the backdoor into the kitchen. Sam and Claire were both sitting at the counter looking bored, so she assumed that the afternoon lull had kicked in.

Ginny blushed tossed the apron around her waist. "Good," she told them, not wanting to admit much. After all, it really _hadn't_ been a date.

Sam leaned back on his stool looking smug. "Good, Ginny? Is that all? I suppose that' s why you didn't come home the other night then, huh?"

A squeal ripped through the air as Claire expressed her delight.

"Did you tell them who the date was with, Gin, or should I?" Sam teased further, clearly enjoying himself.

Claire immediately latched onto Sam's arm and pulled. "Come on, Sam, who was it? Whose got our ickle Ginnikins?"

Ginny whirled around and shot Sam a death glare. "Sam," she said warningly, hoping that the one word would be enough to keep him silent. She really didn't want them to make a big deal out of this, especially since she had invited him over to hang out with them all later.

Sam's mouth however was already open, ready to spill the gossip. "You guys will never guess," he was looking at Ginny though, as if Christmas had come early. Even Mickey, sitting at his feet, wagging his tail, looked as if he was hiding a juicy secret.

"Come on, Sam," Claire pushed him this time, almost making him lose balance on the stool. "Ginny? Now one of you has to tell us. Who is this guy, Gin?"

With one last attempt Ginny held up a warning finger, which Sam matched, but he spit out the news before she even had a chance to open her mouth.

"Harry Potter," he said in a rush, and then he held his breath, waiting for the outburst.

"Who?" Marie said, the first to respond. The name meant absolutely nothing to her.

Claire however, was gripping the counter, mouth wide, eyes dancing at Ginny. "Harry _bloody_ Potter? Ginny! How on earth, did you manage that one?"

Sam licked his lips and stole a glance back at Claire, Ginny was glaring murder at him, but he didn't seem to notice. "Oh, they're old family friends, didn't she tell you? 'Cause, she never told me." He looked back at Ginny with a raised brow.

Finally, Ginny decided to give it up, and she slumped over to her friends. "Oh, come on, it's not that big of a deal. I mean I've known him for forever. I don't usually go announcing that we're friends."

"Bullshit, Ginny," Claire said, still grinning wildly. "We're known you for years, I think you could have let it slip sometime. I mean, I was practically gushing at the picture of him in last week's post and you didn't even mention anything!"

Marie looked up from the dough she was mixing for cookies and blinked. "You mean that handsome young man who was on the cover?" She gave Ginny an approving look. "Good girl, Ginny, he was a cute kid."

"Mum," Claire gasped. "He's more than a 'cute kid.' He's one of the most famous, powerful, handsome, rich, well-connected wizards in the whole world! Witch Weekly named him the most eligible wizard of the year—he's the one who defeated _You-Know-Who_! He's untouchable!"

"Not for Ginny apparently," Sam snorted, still greatly amused by the entire situation. Ginny vowed to either put something very sticky or very hairy in his bed later. "They're been very chummy over the past few days," Sam continued. "He was over for tea this morning when I came home for a shower."

Marie and Claire both nodded their approval to Ginny. She couldn't resist giving them a little smile in return. Now that she was in her comfort zone, gossiping, she felt a lot more accepting off her reoccurring feelings for Harry.

"Yeah," Ginny confirmed. "He's coming by tonight actually, after the café is closed up, to hang out for a bit."

At this Claire's jaw literally dropped. "You're kidding!" She looked at her mum and held her hands up in prayer. "Mum, please, you've got to let me off early so I can go home and shower and dress up so I don't look like I just worked an eight hour hell shift! It's _Harry Potter_ mum, _please_!" She continued her pleading, switching over to French, which she usually did when she was being particularly vocal with her mother.

"Oh, come on," Ginny said, slapping Claire's hands away from Marie playfully. "Don't you dare act like that, I don't want you to treat him different. He's just a normal guy you know. He just wanted to come by and hang out with my friends, _casually_," she stressed the word. "If you act like that he'll just leave." She glared gravely at Sam. "It was bad enough what you did earlier. 'Blimey, you're Harry Potter!'" She mimicked. "Bla... bla… bla… and all that."

Sam had the good graces to look a little embarrassed. "Well, sorry, but I was a little shocked to see him sitting at my breakfast bar, completely out of the blue."

"Fine," Ginny said, then she looked back at Claire. "Please Claire, it's really important that you guys just act normally. And only the usual crowd, don't go inviting half our class or anything. Just us, guys—Sam, you Claire, me, Evan and Taymor, that's it."

"Can't I bring Verity?" Sam asked, blinking his eyelashes dreamily. "She thinks Harry Potter is positively gorgeous."

Ginny shot Sam another glare. "One: I have no idea which of your call girls is Verity. Two: no of course not. Like I said, I just want to hang out! Nothing has to be different, okay?"

"As fun as all of this is kids," Claire responded, dripping dough down on the cookie sheets. "And as much as I enjoy talking about how all of you are going to party in my precious café after hours, we've got a few tables out there who need some serving and I didn't hire you lot to sit back and gossip to each other, and no Claire you can't go home and get ready for Ginny's date."

Ginny laughed at the face Claire pulled, but they all got up and gathered up their things to get back on the floor and start serving.

As much as she loved bartending at the club, Ginny enjoyed working at the café with her friends a lot more. She had never really thought of herself as much of a waitress, but she had fun with it. The bartending was fun in it's own way, but she really didn't like all the loud music and late nights much. It got to be redundant after awhile. She had actually cut her nights at the club down to two a week, enough to keep her hand in and grab some extra quid, but not long enough to make her bored with it.

The more laid back atmosphere and relaxing days at the café were more enjoyable. Half the time she felt as if she was just getting paid to hang out back in the kitchen with her friends. And after all, her boss was one of her best friend's parents.

This night was no different. It wasn't particularly busy so Ginny found herself with a good deal of time to spend out back in the kitchen and catch snippets of conversation with Claire about Harry and to exchange a few barbs with Sam. She liked it best when three of them were working. Two people on the floor was usually enough as the café wasn't large at all, but more often than not those who weren't on schedule would always swing by and offer a helping hand or just sit in the back and talk with Marie.

Around eight Evan wandered in, kissed Claire and snatched up an apron to help Marie in the kitchen. He didn't officially work with them, but he was as good of a cook as Marie and said he liked to keep a hand in at cooking so he wouldn't get lazy. Marie teased that his wages were paid in the meals he snuck in every time she turned her back. Which was true, as he seemed to spend more of his time snatching up pieces of dough off Maries cookie sheet and sneaking sandwiches from the fridge than cooking.

By nine the place was almost entirely empty so the crew got to work cleaning and packing things up for the night. Marie was gone by then, she usually left around nine, so it was just the small group of friends left to close up the shop. Evan and Claire ducked out shortly after Marie, Claire begging Evan to let her nip by the house and get a shower and change before meeting the famous Harry Potter. Even rolled his eyes at his girlfriend and played at mock jealousy, but they all knew he was too relaxed of a guy to actually get upset over something like that. Besides anyone who _looked_ at Claire and Evan knew they were in love. Even Marie knew it was only a matter of time before she would be watching her only daughter walk down the aisle.

As soon as she had a spare minute Ginny nipped in the back and sent Claire's owl off to Harry with directions on how to get to the café from his hotel and specific instructions to come in the back way. She hated to admit it, but she was rather excited that he would be coming over and meeting her friends. True, she had never told them about Harry before, but she really didn't know why she hadn't said anything.

Some of it had to do with the fact that she was so used to Harry being famous that she hadn't really singled it out as not being normal once she left Hogwarts. After all, everyone at Hogwarts had known Harry and hadn't been star struck by him. Though that had been before most of his fame had kicked in from defeating Voldemort, she knew. The other bit of it, she thought came from respect. She knew how much Harry hated being talked about and how badly he wished people didn't know his name. Gossiping to her friends that Harry Potter was a close friend had just seemed like a betrayal or something.

But now…

Well now, she wasn't really sure what she was going for here, but she definitely couldn't deny that her old feelings for Harry were coming back into play. She knew he was only in town for another two days, but she couldn't help hoping that he spent as much time with her as he could and then maybe when it was time for him to go home they would be able to see one another a little more often. If not, then perhaps it was time to start making excuses to visit her dear brother Ron and her sweet old friend Hermione a little more often…

"Knut for your thoughts, Gin, darling," Sam whispered in her ear as he caught her daydreaming again. "But it would be a waste since I already know what you're thinking about."

She swatted at her friend playfully, but couldn't resist smiling. "Everyone gone then?" She asked, choosing to ignore the statement. Sam was always a tease, but he meant well.

"Yup," Sam said, dumping the last try of dirty dishes on the counter and pulling out his wand so he could finish up the final cleaning. "We've officially closed up shop. Evan and Claire still not back yet?"

"Nah," Ginny answered as she slipped off her apron and hung it up and stored away the broom she had been using to clean the floor. "She'll have them waltzing in fashionably late looking her absolute best, and you can bet she'll have Evan dressed up, too. 'Oh, Harry Potter,'" Ginny acted, adapting Claire's higher tone. "'Imagine meeting you here, is that really you? I've had a picture of you on my bedside table since I was twelve you know,'" Ginny fluttered her eyelashes at Sam, doing her best flirtatious Claire impression.

Sam laughed and pointed his wand at the dishes to clean themselves and put them away. "Nice, Ginny. Yeah, I think I can imagine that happening."

"Where's Taymor though?" Ginny asked, dropping her act and looking towards the door to inquire about the last friend in their little group. "I thought he'd be here by now." Taymor was the only one of the group who didn't work at the café. Instead he worked down the street at the Ministry branch as a clerk. It wasn't a particularly glorifying job, but Taymor was the type who wanted to really get a good career job in the Ministry and he was willing to do all he could to make sure he could secure a position after university was over. But he worked with Ginny one night a week at the club, for fun, he said.

"Ah, he's got a date tonight," Sam confirmed. "He told me he'd drop by after, or maybe not," he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, shut up, Sam. There's no need to be vulgar, you know. Do you know who he going out with then?" Ginny asked. She was trying to stay as preoccupied with the conversation as possible so that she could keep to her relaxed attitude. She most certainly didn't want to rush to the mirror and make she her hair and make up were okay. Well, she did, she just didn't want Sam to see her do it.

"Some girl he met in the quad last week," he answered, shucking off his own apron and running a hand through his short hair. "I think she might be a muggle, but he didn't say much about her. Well, then, Gin. I'll just nip across the street to the liquor store shall I? What did you want tonight?"

"If you need to ask that, then you don't know me well enough, Sam," Ginny answered dryly. All of her friends knew that her drink was whiskey, though surprisingly enough she only liked the muggle kind. She couldn't stand fire whiskey, it burnt her throat.

"Gotcha, and a bottle of tequila for Claire," Sam stood up and stretched. "Man, but we're going to have to make it an early night tonight, babe, we've both got class in the morning."

"Yeah, at eleven," was Ginny's response, but he was right. Finals, for the first of the two summer terms, would be coming up before she knew it and she really did need to be on her toes for those. She had to keep up grades for her scholarship, after all.

Sam flashed her a wicked grin. "I don't have class until one, you poor sod you."

Ginny just snorted and pushed him out the door, wanting to get rid of him so that she could clean herself up a bit without anyone knowing. He slipped out the back, unaware of Ginny's real intentions, and the moment Sam was gone Ginny slid into the bathroom. She looked all right, a flowing summer skirt that thankfully hadn't been stained by anything, and a short sleeved oxford shirt top. She took off her waitress nametag thought and pinned her hair back a little more securely, she rarely ever wore it down these days, and it was just too long. She didn't have much makeup on, and she felt as if she might look a little plain, but just as she was trying to contemplate how to fix herself up she heard someone knocking on the backdoor. None of her friends bothered to knock; the café was a second home to them. It could only be one person.

Carefully, Ginny dashed over to the door, doing her best not to trip over Mickey, who was sleeping under where the aprons were all hanging, and opened the door.

"Hey, Harry!" She called warmly and ushered him into the kitchen before any of the oppressive heat of the summer night could penetrate the cool kitchen.

"Hey, Ginny," Harry responded, his gaze unfortunately resting on the dog before it fell on her. This time however, Mickey decided not to pay Harry any heed. He raised one hairy eyebrow lazily and then shut both eyes firmly, choosing to sleep instead. "Does he go everywhere with you?"

Ginny laughed and motioned him further into the sitting area. "No, he's not my dog. He's Sam's actually. Sam brings him over whenever he's on shift. Our boss doesn't mind as long as none of the customers know he's back here, but he's well behaved. Well, for the most part at least." She looked back at Harry, wanting to draw the conversation away from the dog. "Do you want to sit down? Sam just went to buy the drinks or I'd offer you one. I hope you don't mind waiting a few minutes?"

Harry smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Ginny noticed that he was dress as finely as he had been the other night. Yes, the better quality, tailored clothes were a lot better than the mess he used to wear at school. "No, of course not," he answered entirely unaware of the internal critique that was playing out in Ginny's mind.

Ginny moved back to the table in the corner where they would all squeeze in when everyone arrived. Usually they just liked to play a game of cards or sit around and talk to catch up. They tried to meet at the café at least once a week as a group, but often their get-togethers were more frequent than that. "My friends will all be along in a few minutes probably."

"Alright then," Harry said as he had a look around. The kitchen wasn't very big, it was pretty stuffy actually, but it severed its purpose. Ginny remembered how much Harry liked the coziness of the Burrow and hoped that the café held the same charm for him. "So this is where you work?"

"Well, yeah, I used to be a stripper, but my brothers made me quite, so I figured here was a good a place as any," Ginny teased, wanting to see what kind of reaction it would get out of Harry.

He gave her a frantically startled glance, mouth slightly open as if he didn't quite know what to say.

"I'm kidding, Harry. It was a joke," she laughed, delighted that he had actually believed her. "I'm not a stripper."

"Oh," Harry relaxed, shaking his head a bit. "You scared me for a second there." He pulled a chair out at the table and sat down across from Ginny.

"I mean do you really think I'd tell my brothers about my side jobs?" Ginny tried again, pushing his limits a little further.

This time however, Harry caught on and just gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Careful Ginny, or I might have to tell your mum on you."

Ginny gave Harry a long look. "You wouldn't dare."

He smirked and draped an arm over the back of a neighboring chair. "I would."

"That's against the rules you know," Ginny said. "All the Weasley children know, you don't tattle to mum."

One of Harry's shoulders rose up and then back down as if this wasn't a concern to him. "I'm not a Weasley," he quipped. "Rules don't apply."

At that Ginny snorted. "Fine, then I'll tell mum that you just said you think you're too good to be one of her kids."

"What?" The smug look on Harry's face was immediately replaced with worry. "Don't say that. I didn't mean it that way…" His eyes narrowed. "Fine, I get it, no telling then."

Ginny flashed a wide smile. "You know better, Harry. I am the only girl; I get away with everything. No matter how much mum loves you, she's going to take my side."

For a moment it looked like Harry was going to add something, but they were interrupted as Sam came in through the door noisily. "Got some whiskey, a little rum and tequila for Claire and then I figured, what the hell we could all use a few shots of it so I picked up some limes as well." Sam set his paper bag down on the counter, kicked off his shoes and gave Harry a wave. "Hey Harry, how's the day treating you?"

As Harry turned around to answer Sam, Ginny mouthed a 'thank you,' to Sam behind his back. She was just glad that Sam wasn't making a big deal out it like he had been joking he was going to do all day.

"Pretty good, I took in some of the sights this afternoon, Ginny's right," Harry turned back to her and gave her a sly smile. "It is a beautiful city."

Behind his back Sam was sticking out his tongue and giving a silent gag. He quickly rearranged his face before Harry could turn back around.

"Anyways," Sam went on. "I ran into Taymor down the street, he's saying goodnight to his date. Foxy," he stressed. "I mean really, wow," he closed his eyes as if remembering and sighed.

Ginny rolled her eyes and shifted her gaze back to Harry. "Sam thinks anything in a skirt is worth pursuing."

Sam kicked over a chair and took a seat next to Harry, slamming a tray containing the bottles of liquor, and a few glasses onto the table. "Oh no, Gin. This one wasn't wearing a skirt. I don't think there was enough cloth to constitute that. Oh," he shook his head again.

Harry laughed and ran a hand through his hair, clearly enjoying Sam's antics. It wasn't unusual; Sam was a very lovable guy. Almost anyone who met him loved him immediately. Of course that did help a great deal with his social life. The boy had twice as many dates as she ever did.

"Sounds right up your alley, Sam," Ginny teased. There was another bang and Taymor himself hurried in through the door. "Heard about that date Tay," Ginny called over to her friend. "Had fun did-ja?"

Taymor rolled his eyes. He was almost the exact opposite of Sam. He was a good guy, but he was highly respectful and much more intelligent than the rest of them. He was the one who had a plan for the future and plans of a career in the ministry. They all knew he just wanted to meet a nice girl and start a family.

"You can have her, Sam," Taymor sighed, bending down to give the sleeping Mickey a pat on the head. "She's right up your alley," he made a face. "Sorry, Gin."

"Hey," Sam threw his head back, trying to look at Taymor who was standing directly behind him without turning his chair around. "What're you apologizing to her for, and why would that gal be right up my alley?"

Taymor and Ginny exchanged a look, Ginny coughing 'whore,' under her breath.

Sam shot her a look, but then he shrugged. "Yeah, okay," he agreed after a minute. "I'm sorry my tastes aren't as _sophisticated_ as yours, Taymor." He looked at Ginny. "And I'm sorry you have to wake up to all my girls, Ginny."

Harry chuckled and leaned back in his chair to take in the exchange. Ginny saw Taymor's eyes being drawn to him, the second of unfamiliarity, the spark of recognition and then the settling back down into his normal casualty. Good old Taymor, and she hadn't even had to scold him.

"I'm sorry, Taymor, this is my friend Harry. Harry this is my good friend Taymor," Ginny introduced.

Striding forward, Taymor matched Harry's outstretched hand with his own, and shook it. "Nice to meet you, mate." They released hands and Taymor fell into the chair between Harry and Ginny and reached for the bottle of tequila. "Shots, huh?" He said, spinning the bottle around in his hands to get a good look at the label.

Ginny groaned. "I'm not sure I'm up for that yet," she answered. "Sam and I have class in the morning. I'm just down for a few drinks tonight."

Playfully, Taymor butted her with his elbow and grinned. "Oh, come on now, Ginny. You don't want to spend another morning in the toilet spilling your guts out? Why not?"

At that Harry let out another snort of laughter. "So hangovers are a normal occurrence for you Ginny? I'm not sure your brothers would be too proud of that."

Conspiringly Sam leaned into Harry and started whispering obviously behind his back, though he didn't really try to lower his voice much. "She's absolutely terrible, and she can't brew a decent hangover potion to save her life. I have to listen to her retch all night every time she has more than one drink."

Ginny colored, she wasn't sure she liked the direction this conversation was going. "Oh, shut up, Sam. You're not exactly all that good at holding drinks yourself. I seem to remember staying up the half the night with you last week when you came home from your pub crawl with Evan."

"Fine, fine," Sam said and reached for the bottle of whiskey. "Get some ice and soda will you, Tay? I want a drink."

"Gotcha," Taymor agreed and went in search of the items in the kitchen.

"And some salt for the tequila," Sam called again, catching the shaker a second later as Taymor tried to throw it at his head. "Thanks, buddy," he responded dryly. "You're a real help."

Evan and Claire arrived just as Sam finished pouring a drink for each of them. Just as Ginny had predicted, Claire was looking her best, as if she had just come from a fancy restaurant. Evan looked more put together than usual, he was actually wearing khakis as opposed to his usual torn jeans and Ginny was sure his cheeks were still pink from where Claire had scrubbed them.

"Hello, all," Claire announced, putting on a wide fake smile, and then she pretended to notice Harry and rushed forward. "And you must be Harry, how nice to meet you!"

Harry looked slightly scandalized as Claire reached for his hand and clasped it like a lifeline. Evan followed behind her though and removed her away from Harry with one steady push and let her collapse into a chair by Ginny.

"Er—nice to meet you, too," Harry responded a second late.

"Harry this is my friend," Claire made a sound in the back of her throat and began toying with her curls as if ignoring Ginny. "I'm sorry," Ginny amended, "this is my _best_ friend Claire, and this is Evan, guys this is my friend Harry."

Evan nodded his head at Harry, but didn't even spare him a glance before he made his way back to the kitchen in search of food. "Nice to meet you, mate. Gin? Is there anything left over for dinner?"

"Try the fridge," Sam answered for her, knocking back a long sip of straight whiskey.

Taymor leaned up against the table and examined the crowd now that they were all here. "So what do you say to a good card game?" He produced a well-worn deck from his pocket and slapped it down on the table. "Poker? My deal? Losers take a shot?"

"You all play poker?" Harry said, straightening up a bit in his chair and looking more aware of what was going on around him.

They all looked at him and Ginny felt bad so she decided to answer. "Yeah, I told you Harry, the magical world here is more influenced by muggles than any other part of the world. Most of us don't use magic very much around here."

Evan plopped down next to Claire with a sandwich in his hand. "Yeah, Claire and I are both muggle born and Taymor's a half-blood."

Sam leaned back, acquiring an air as if channeling Draco Malfoy himself. "I, of course, am a pureblood."

"Yeah, and rich to boot," Ginny joked.

Claire raised an eyebrow at Sam. "I never knew you had money, Sam." She said as if it really mattered, she looked at Ginny accusingly. "How do you know that?"

Ginny fluttered her lashes and posed delicately. "His family thinks that I'm his girlfriend. I go over for dinner every month at the family estates." She caught Harry's little grin and winked at him as the rest of the table snorted in laughter. Sam, at least, had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Yeah, well… I had to come up with an excuse for living with a girl I wasn't involved with, and you all know my tastes. My family would hardly approve," he said, doing his best to defend his honor. "Gin and I have been officially dating for nearly four years I think, is that right?" He asked Ginny.

Ginny screwed up her face in thought. "Yeah, four years next February, I think." She grinned. "And I fully expect a lavish anniversary present this year, I think I well deserve it," then she leaned over as if sharing a secret with Claire. "We have dinner with Auntie May tomorrow night. We're gong to a very posh new restaurant in Edinburgh together."

"Oh," Claire said with a smile. "And what happens when the family expects you two to get married, Sam?"

Sam started looking even more embarrassed and stared chewing on his lip. "They keep trying to give me my grand mum's old ring actually," he glanced over at Harry who was sitting next to him, holding a hand over his mouth, and trying not to laugh. "It's horrible actually," he explained to Harry. "I never thought that they would actually _like_ Ginny."

"Hey!" Ginny cried out, dropping back into her casual pose and relaxing back into her seat.

Sam shrugged his indifference. "Hey, it's true. I mean you're not at all their type."

Ginny sighed and gave Harry a look. "Do you see what I have to deal with here? I fake a four year relationship for this guy and he doesn't even think I'm good enough for his family?"

"Yeah, yeah, well let's just drop it okay?" Sam said, swallowing about half of his glass. "I'd rather just play some cards."

Claire was outright laughing now though. "Oh, I don't know about that, Sammy boy. I want to hear more about this illicit romance you two have been hiding all these years. I can't believe I didn't know about it."

"He's embarrassed," said Ginny, not feeling sorry at all for Sam, he teased her just as bad at every opportunity he had.

"Oh, give the guy a break," Harry said speaking up. "I don't think he wants to talk about it anymore."

Sam raised his glass. "Cheers Harry, I'm glad someone," he directed this comment to the rest of the table. "Agrees with me. Back to poker then?"

The glasses clinked together and Sam and Harry shot back their toast while Ginny smiled at them, glad they were getting along. Harry really seemed to have dropped his earlier sour attitude towards her best friend.

Taymor started dealing and Evan and Claire poured themselves a drink while Harry shook his head. "I just can't believe you lot play poker," he said, and then he looked across to Ginny. "Could you imagine trying to teach Ron?"

Ginny and Sam laughed, since both knew the person in question, though Ginny had to explain to the rest of the table. "Ron's my brother, and he's Harry's best friend. They're flat mates now."

Sam turned to Harry seriously. "Poor bloke, I guess that means your Weasley is as awful as mine. You know, we could switch if you want. I wouldn't mind not having to pick out a bunch of bra's from my laundry every week," his expression grew solemn and he turned to Ginny. "Unless there is something about your brother that you haven't told me."

Harry snorted into his glass and had to cough to keep from choking.

"God, I hope not, or else I entirely missed something," Ginny teased.

"No seriously," Sam said, resting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "If Ron's you're roommate then I really feel sorry for you."

A look of confusion spread across Harry's face, so Sam explained. "He's got a temper on him like I've never seen!"

"Really?" Harry asked, genuinely confused. "Its not that bad is it?" he looked at Ginny for confirmation.

"Oh, yeah," continued Sam, now explaining to the whole table. "The first time I met him, I thought he was going to punch me. He refused to even look at me until about two years ago. Now, I guess he's all right. But only since he knows I have no interest in his little sister."

"Is that so?" Harry said, running a hand through his hair, messing it up, and letting it fall back into his eyes. For a moment the whole table had been given a clear view of his famous scar. Ginny heard Claire give a soft sigh next to her, then her sharp intake of breath as Evan elbowed her in the ribs. "I've never seen Ron like that, well," he gave Ginny a quick look. "Not since Hogwarts at least."

"You've also never seen how Ron reacts when he thinks I'm sleeping with someone he doesn't know," Ginny said, widening her eyes and taking a long drink.

"Poor, ickle Ginnikins," Taymor teased. "I don't know any guy who would brave a troop of brothers like that to be with you." He glanced significantly at Evan. "Remember Greg?"

Sam gave a sad sigh and raised his glass in a toast. "Poor guy, I actually liked him."

"Shut up," Ginny yelled at the both of them, giving her best glare. "Alright, so are we playing or not?"

"Shut up!" Sam mimicked in a squealing voice, but it was his last jib, after that he settled down and started playing.

They teased their way through a few rounds, and to Ginny's surprise Harry was actually pretty good. She remembered how often he lost at any game they ever played at Hogwarts, but that was usually exploding snap or wizard chess. In the end he actually won most of the hands they ended up playing, though by the end of an hour even he had been forced to take at least one shot of the tequila. Clair herself had four. She was the worst of them all. Ginny wasn't doing much better though, she had to take two herself and she had been drinking a whiskey and coke on the side throughout all of the game. Still, she was no where near as drunk as she was the other night, but she definitely was starting to feel a little buzz going in the back of her head.

She was very pleased at how well Harry was getting along with her friends. The guys all seemed to be joking together, and Harry and Sam in particular were chatting like old friends. Evan and Claire spent most of the time talking amongst themselves, as they usually did, whispering secrets into on another's ears and giggling. It didn't take long for Claire to declare herself done with the game and switch to leaning heavily into Evan's arms while he did his best to play with his one free hand.

They were having a blast and pretty soon the cards were forgotten and they were all relaxing and talking openly. Ginny had been worried that once they had some liquor in them that her friends would remember exactly who Harry was and start asking questions, but they didn't mention a thing. Everything the boys talked about was completely casual, and Harry seemed as much at ease as he was with her brothers. More than once however he caught Ginny's eyes and gave her a flirtatious smile or a sly wink.

Before long Evan and Claire headed off for bed, but only after Claire had received a promise from Harry that he would join them all another time. Then after being caught yawning for the third time Taymor excused himself and declared he would see them all next week, and Ginny on Thursday when they shared a shift at the club. When they found themselves down to three they all looked at one another.

"Well, shall we head home then?" Sam asked Ginny, his eyes glazed over slightly.

Feeling ready for the comfort of her bed, Ginny smiled. "Yeah, that sounds good. Call it a night, Harry?"

Looking more refreshed than either of them Harry nodded and helped the other two clear the table, and stash the remaining liquor in a cupboard for another day.

Sam made it out the door first, but Harry pulled Ginny back into the café before they could follow. "Hey, Ginny," he said, immediately releasing the arm he had caught to run a hand through his hair. Ginny looked up at him, she loved it when he did that. "I've got to get out of here day after tomorrow and I'm not sure I'll see you again before I leave, but I was wondering, um…" Ginny smiled at his nervousness, anxious for him to just come out and say it. "Would you like to go out to dinner next weekend or something? I'd really like to see you again. I mean, I can't believe we lost contact to begin with. I really don't want that to happen again."

Ginny had to tilt her head back to look up at Harry, but she did so and smiled. She wasn't sure she could keep the smile from her face even if she tried, but she wasn't about to do that. "Yeah, Harry. I think I'd really like that."

"Friday?" He asked hopefully.

"Friday," Ginny agreed.

Then reluctantly she pulled herself away and led them both out the door so that she could lock up. Sam was waiting on the stair, giving Ginny a thumbs up from behind Harry's back and a large bawdy wink.

"Six-thirty, I'll meet you at your place," Harry finished, and then he turned around and smiled at Sam, holding his hand out again. "Sam, it was great meeting you. I had fun, I hope we run into each other again sometime."

"Me too, mate," Sam said, releasing his hand.

Then Harry stepped back and disapperated with barely a pop.

Sam looked past the suddenly empty space and then up at Ginny. "Damn, he didn't even make a sound."

Ginny nodded and made her way down the stairs to the street. "He is Harry Potter, Sam, the most powerful wizard of our time."

He shook his head and the two fell into step with each other, Ginny pausing only to collect her bike so she could walk it along side her. Mickey was trotting ahead of them, his leash slackened so he could make his own way.

"I guess you forget that when you're talking to him," Sam commented sleepily. "I mean, he's our age!"

"I know," Ginny agreed, stifling a yawn herself. "You should have seen him at school. If you think it's strange coming from someone our age, you should have seen it coming from a school-boy." She paused. "He asked me to dinner on Friday," she glanced up at Sam to see what his reaction would be.

"Imagine that," Sam said, putting an arm around her shoulders. She wasn't sure if he was steering her or supporting himself, but he held on tightly and she didn't mind. "Our little Ginny Weasley with the famous Harry Potter."

He was quite for a few minutes and they just listened to the sound of the street and their footsteps falling heavily on the cobblestones. In the distance they could hear a group of loud university students singing and cheering as they made their way back from the pub. "Well, I for one approve, Ginny," Sam said finally. "I think he's a great guy. Definitely a lot more fun than I would have thought, I never would have guessed it."

"Yeah," Ginny agreed. "He is, isn't he?"


	4. Nothing To Write Home About

Love Is Like A Rose

By liquid lily

Chapter 4: Nothing To Write Home About

Friday couldn't come sooner in Ginny's opinion. She kept thinking about Harry and getting to see him again. Sam's teasing didn't help either, and Claire kept gushing about how lucky she was every time they were in the café hanging out together. Classes were even more miserable because Ginny didn't have anything to take her mind off things, the lectures really weren't doing much to hole her attention and the warm summer days were just too inviting. Finally though after a full week of classes, working at the café, nights at the club and dinner with Sam's aunt as well as a handful of chores, Friday arrived. Though once it did it seemed to draw out even longer than the rest of the week had.

"Relax, Gin," Sam told her that night. He himself was getting ready for a date, a much more frequent occurrence for him than it was for Ginny, who this time was sure she was going on a date with Harry. "I thought it was 'no big deal' and all that."

Ginny was dressed and ready on time for once in her life. Though she rather thought it wasn't all it was made out to be as she was just left sitting in the living room, fidgeting nervously with her necklace as she tried to occupy herself with sorting through the mess on the table. It was fifteen past six and she expected Harry to show up at any time now. He had sent her an owl earlier that morning with Hedwig (whom Ginny hadn't seen since she was a girl) to tell her that they were just going to grab a quick bite, no where fancy, and that maybe they could catch a movie afterwards. The post-script said how much he was looking forward to seeing her that night. It had made her blush and Sam laugh.

"Shut up, Sam. I'm fine, it's nothing," Ginny snapped, eyes glancing back up at the clock on the mantle to make sure a minute hadn't passed by without her noticing it.

Sam stuck his head out from the bathroom. He was styling his hair, trying to get it just right which seemed to take longer than it took Ginny to fix her hair. "So should I expect you home tonight? Or will you be out?" He ducked back in just in time to avoid being hit by the latest copy of the Oxford Times, which bounced off the frame instead and scattered across the floor.

"I'm not one of your type of girls, Sam," Ginny teased, bending down to pick up the mess she had just made. "I'll assume that you're planning on bringing your latest back tonight?"

She heard Sam snort in the bathroom. "Of course, Gin. Who do you think I am, Taymor?"

They both shared a laugh at that, and then very clearly they heard the knock followed by Mickey's desperate scramble to throw his body at the door before anyone could answer it.

Sam stuck his head out the bathroom and he and Ginny exchanged the silent look that meant a challenge, it could be either one of their dates. He was closer to the door than she was, but Ginny was the faster one, and she played dirty. Then the tension broke and they both bolted for the door. "I'll get it, Ginny!" Sam cried loudly when they were within reach, causing Ginny to curse and retreat back into the den to compose herself.

"Hey, Harry, what's up?" She heard Sam say, followed by a series of barks and scrambles and then, "Gin, tell the damn dog to sit will you? He won't listen to me—I'm only his owner and all that."

"Mickey, sit!" Ginny called, using it as an excuse to appear in the front hall so she could get her first look at Harry.

He was standing in the door, ruffling Mickey's ear, who was now sitting back on his haunches crooning gratefully. Harry looked up as Ginny appeared and gave her a shy smile. Sam outright smirked and moved back towards the bathroom.

"Careful with my girl, Harry, she's got work tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and be sure to have her out past midnight or she'll turn into a pumpkin," he turned and winked at Harry. "I've got a date tonight and I'm afraid that we'll be occupying the flat until then." He turned to Ginny and smiled at her. "At the very least."

Ginny stuck her tongue out at him and made her way towards the door where Harry was waiting. "Just ignore him, Harry," she said. "He's just full of himself."

Harry's light laugh filled the hall and Ginny felt her heart start to race, but then he stepped back so Ginny could step out onto the landing and throw on her sweater. The summer night was still warm, but she knew from experience that it could get a bit chilly later on.

"Bye, Sam, it was nice seeing you again," Harry said as he said goodbye and then he pulled Ginny's green hat off the hook in the hall and shut the door.

They were both on the landing together now, facing one another. Harry smiled at her and set the floppy hat carefully on her head, tucking her hair neatly behind her ears as he did so. "Here, we're going to be outside tonight and I don't want you to get cold."

Ginny gave him a small grin, bit her lip and placed a hand on top of her head to secure the hat more firmly. Sometimes he was too sweet for his own good. "Thanks, Harry. So what are we doing tonight, and outside?"

"Actually, I thought we could go see a play at the King's Garden, where we met last week," he said, starting off down the stairs. "They're putting on The Tempest, with a sort of picnic."

Ginny ducked her head, glad that she was a bit shorter than Harry and that she had the brim of her hat to hide the blush that crept over her cheeks. In all the dates that she had ever been taken on at Oxford, by people who lived here, she had never had one so good. Usually it was just dinner or the pub. A play in the garden sounded _much_ better.

And she wasn't to be disappointed either. The garden was not large to begin with, so only about three dozen people were able to watch the play, sitting on the grass on blankets, provided with a picnic and wine if you were willing to pay extra for it. Harry did, and set them up in the front corner so they could have a good view of the 'stage', which consisted of the back wall and a stretch of grass by the roses. As it turned out they really didn't need to be up front as the actors appeared all around them, standing sometime in the center of the garden, or in the back, or up on one of the enclosing walls. It was fantastic, and she couldn't believe in all of her years here she hadn't been to one of the garden plays. She had been to some down at the park a few miles away, but they weren't nearly as fun as this.

And Harry was the perfect companion; he seemed to really be enjoying himself as well, clapping and laughing loudly at the antics of the play, sneaking sidelong glances at Ginny. Since they were both sharing a blanket it gave Ginny the perfect excuse to lean into Harry for support when she started getting tired of holding herself upright, and he casually let an arm slip around her shoulders.

By the time it was over and it was time to go, the summer night had settled over Oxford and the stars were spread out across the sky. Most of the audience packed up and left, letting the porters lock the gates behind them, but since Ginny was a student and had a key she suggested to Harry that they take a walk around the small campus and look at the stars. So for some time they set up the blanket by the King's Deer, which were kept pinned up in the back, and alternated between watching the stars and watching the doe run across the lawn.

"I like that one the best," Ginny said pointing to the white looking doe, who seemed to be the bravest of the lot. She was grazing by the fence, occasionally throwing accusing glances at Ginny and Harry as if she knew they weren't really supposed to be there.

Harry pulled out his wand and muttered a spell under his breath. Ginny watched as the silver vapor exploded from the end of his wand and materialized as his stag patronus.

"Oh, I had forgotten!" Ginny exclaimed as she recognized the once familiar patronus. The stag snorted at them and ran through the fence to rub noses with the white doe. They watched as they ran off together for a few minutes then the patronus stag faded away.

Ginny stifled another yawn and caught Harry giving her an amused look. "C'mon," he said, hoisting her off the blanket. "I'll walk you home, you're getting too tired, and I don't want you falling asleep on me again."

For a moment Ginny felt like protesting, the night was so nice, and she was having such a good time, but she knew he was right. If they waited much longer, the last thing she would want to do was walk the mile back home to her flat.

Harry folded up the blanket and then banished it back to his place with a flick off his wand and they headed back.

The walk home wasn't a long one, and the streets were mostly empty by that time of night. They only passed the occasional student, slumping back to the dorms to catch a few hours of sleep before their first class in the morning.

After passing about their third student, Harry commented on how surprised he was there were so many of them.

"Well, of course," Ginny responded laughingly. "This is a university city. It's covered in colleges; almost the entire population is students. Didn't you know that?"

Harry smiled. "I'm afraid not, I didn't even know that there was a magical university here until your mum told me you'd moved here. I thought someone's magical education was over when they finished Hogwarts."

"No, well," Ginny thought about it. "Most people stop attending school after Hogwarts, but you don't have to. I mean, there is so much more to learn, that we didn't get to cover."

"Where is your university?" Harry asked.

Ginny pointed back in the direction they had just come from. "Oh, most of my classes are at Magdalen where we just where, but a bunch of others are Christ Church," she shrugged. "I've had classes at most of the colleges around here. The way it works is each department is spread out at another college so that the muggles don't catch on. Like, you know that big tower on Magdalen? That's where I take my classes; the muggles think it's just this big empty thing when they go in. They don't see all the other doors and rooms that are really inside." She shrugged again. "You get used to it after a while."

"Ah," Harry commented, and then they walked along in silence again until he came up with his next question. "What about your friends, did they all go to Hogwarts?"

"No," Ginny answered. "Sam, he's father was an ambassador for the Ministry so he moved all around when he was a kid. He attended school in… let me think, Australia, Spain and Canada, I think, then he moved here to be closer to his mum who's in Bath. His dad is still traveling around, I think he's in Germany now, but I'm not sure. He doesn't return to Britain much, and I've only met him a few times.

"And Claire is really French, well her mum, Marie—you haven't met her yet, but it was her café we were in last week—well Marie is French and she wanted Claire to attend school at Beauxbatons. So Claire received a Hogwarts letter, but since she has duel citizenship for France as well, she went there. That's where she met Evan. He is fully French, though you wouldn't know it now. When I first met him he could barely speak English, and now he doesn't have an accent! He moved here after Claire graduated from Beauxbatons, because he didn't want to be separated from her, though he doesn't go to university. Marie lets him live with her and Claire and he helps out at the café, but," she shrugged. "It won't be long before they're married, really.

"Then Taymor," Ginny went on, hoping that she wasn't boring him. "Taymor actually was living in America when he started school. He graduated a year early and received a full scholarship to come here," she wrinkled her nose. "He's a bit of a Hermione really."

At that, Harry laughed. "Well, at least he seemed to have more of a sense of humor, honestly," he shook his head. "All I hear Hermione talk about now is how messy our flat is and she doesn't even live there."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Sounds like Hermione to me. You know all the summers she stayed at the Burrow, when she shared a room with me? Well, she used to nag me nonstop about the state of my mess, and disorganization. I came back from playing Quidditch one day and she had completely categorized all of the books on my shelves by alphabetical order."

A smile spread over Ginny's face as Harry started to laugh; she liked being able to get that response out of him. He looked so much more handsome when he smiled. They were starting to approach Ginny's steps now, and as she climbed up she wondered what would be the best way to ask him to come in for a bit. In the end she was saved having to ask by Claire and Evan as they made their way up the street.

"Oy, Gin!" Claire called after her as she and Evan rounded the corner. Ginny turned and waited as her friend ran the distance between them and gave her a huge hug. "Have I told you recently how much I love you?"

Ginny patted her friend on the back, rolled her eyes at Harry and then glanced at Evan. "How much has she had to drink exactly?" She asked.

Evan shrugged and grinned. "It's Friday, Gin. She doesn't have classes tomorrow," he caught up to them and slapped Harry on the shoulder. "Hey, mate, how's your night going?"

Before Harry could have the chance to answer Ginny pushed Claire back into Evan's arms and unlocked the door. "Come on, let's talk inside, where it's comfortable." Evan helped Claire across the threshold carefully and then Ginny turned to Harry. "Are you coming?"

For a moment he looked like he might say no, but Ginny stuck out her lip. "Please, Harry, we'll just hang out for a bit, talk, you know?"

"Are you sure I'm not intruding or anything?" He asked, glancing down the hall at Claire who had tripped over Mickey and fallen to the floor, Evan was trying to help her up, but the dog kept knocking him back.

Ginny furrowed her brow. "Don't be ridiculous. Get inside!" Harry stepped into the door while Ginny locked up and kicked off her shoes, and set her green hat on its peg thoughtfully. By the time she made it into the living room Sam already had Harry locked in a conversation at the mantle and Evan and Claire were clearly showing their affection for one another on the couch. Mickey caught sight of her first and came bounding over to make his hellos.

After a quick pat on the head, Ginny drew Sam's attention with a quick glance and they grinned wickedly at one another. Harry glanced between the two as if trying to detect what was going on so Ginny held a finger up to her lips and pointed to her other two friends on the couch. They were so involved with one another they probably hadn't noticed that the rest of the conversation in the room had stopped.

"Mickey, attack!" Ginny cried enthusiastically and threw red rubber ball Mickey played with right at their friends. Without a thought, Mickey scrambled across the room, leapt over the table and right on Evan.

"Oh, come on!" followed by "Mickey!" then "_Ginny_!" answered her little prank.

The dog had settled himself happily between the couple, the red ball in his mouth, drool dripping off it onto Evan's lap while his tail slapped at Claire's arm.

"Well, you were being rude," teased Ginny, giggling along with Harry and Sam. "Anyways, you should know better."

After that Claire and Evan became more sociable, and each of them took a seat around the table, Mickey, absolutely refusing to move off his new spot on the couch. Somehow Ginny ended up sharing the opposite couch with Harry while Sam sprawled across the chair. She knew her friend had been trying to arrange it specifically, but she also knew that with an audience Harry was unlikely to touch her. And she was right, now they had all of Ginny's friends around Harry was leaning against the arm of the couch, careful to make sure that he didn't so much as accidentally brush up against her.

"What happened to your date, Sam?" Ginny asked, smirking at her flat mate's scowl.

"She started to cry," Sam said to the utter amusement of their friends. "I took her to that new Italian place by the café and she said Italian reminded her of her grand mum once went to Italy and apparently died last year choking on a piece of pizza." He shook his head. "It was a nightmare," he shrugged. "So what did you lot do tonight?"

"Went to see a play up at one of the colleges," Harry answered casually. "Nothing much really." Ginny traded a look with him out of the corner of her eye. Nothing much indeed… but if he didn't want to make a big deal out of it, she wasn't going to start gushing to her friends now. She'd wait until after he'd apparated home to do that.

"I _wanted_ to do that," Claire pouted, shooting a glare at her boyfriend. "But we ended up watching a football match down at the pub instead."

Evan rolled his eyes and let out a string of French, which Claire promptly returned and the bickering started.

"Did you catch that?" Ginny asked Sam when Claire started in to something about a mermaid, which she couldn't quite catch. They were started to talk a little fast for her limited language skills.

Sam shrugged. "I lost them after they started arguing about the bedroom furniture."

"Do you speak French?" Harry asked glancing between Sam and Ginny as if impressed.

Ginny shrugged and watched as he straightened his glasses on his face and itched the side of his nose. "Only a little. Marie teaches us at the café sometime, but we're not very good."

"Speak for yourself," Sam argued. "I'm bloody fantastic!"

Claire broke out of her banter long enough to throw a pillow at her friend. "Ha! You couldn't even hail a cab in Paris!"

"Fine, fine!" Sam relented, batting the pillow away and letting it fall to the floor. "I'm not that good then. I—" Sam paused and glanced at Ginny. "Are you expecting any post? Only, it sounds like an owl at the window…"

Ginny exchanged a quizzical look with her flat mate and strained her ears. Indeed it did sound like an owl scratching at the glass. "I'll get it," she sighed, motioning for Harry to remain seated when he started to get up, and made her way to the window.

To her surprise it was a Ministry owl and the moment the window was open it flew in, landed on the table (ignoring Mickey's now frantic barks) and stuck its leg out for Harry.

Harry cursed loudly and ran a hand across his face before accepting the parchment. Once revealed of its message the owl turned, avoided Mickey's snapping jaw and then flew out the window. The room was now quite, but Ginny was just watching Harry as he read the message through.

"Look, I'm sorry, but I've got to go," Harry said, standing up suddenly and looking very strained. "Sam, Evan, Claire, it was nice to see you," his eyes flickered up to Ginny and he locked their gazes, jerking his head towards the hall.

She followed him, feeling her heart sinking. Whatever he news he had just received, it was not good.

Once they were around the corner and out of the view of her friends Harry reached a hand out to run down Ginny's arm, which sent shivers down her spine. "I'm really sorry, but I'm probably going to be out of the country for a while."

"What?" Ginny said, not quite understanding. They had only just found each other again, and after only one date he had to leave?

He held up the note he had just received. "It's from Kingsley, he wants me to meet him at Headquarters," the frown on his face deepened. "He has reports that Wormtail has been sighted in Berlin." He held up a hapless hand and then let it fall. "Look, I really don't want to leave now but…"

"No, no, you have to," Ginny urged, though she wished she was saying anything else. "I understand."

The corners of his mouth twitched up into a kid of smile and he let the hand on her arm fall away. "I'll write to you when I know what's going on, and," he bit his lip. "When I do come back, can we go out again? Maybe in London next time?"

Ginny couldn't bring herself to speak so she just nodded and watched as Harry disapparated away, gone out of her life again. Slowly she walked back to the silent living room back under the eyes of her three friends.

"Auror work," she told them by means of explanation. "I forgot how demanding the Ministry was."

After that Ginny didn't feel much like socializing, so she lazed back on the couch and listened to her friend's strained conversation until she eventually fell asleep.

Sam woke her what felt like seconds later, pushing her body over on the couch so he could lie next to her.

"Where'd the other's go?" She asked, raising her head up so he could slip an arm underneath her neck.

"Home," he told her. "So do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"Harry," she told him miserably, burying her head into his shoulder.

"Well, I guessed that much," he said, giving her a slight squeeze. "What about him."

"He's gone to chase after Wormtail again," she admitted. "In Berlin. I doubt he'll be back for weeks."

"Wormtail?" Sam asked.

The name filled Ginny with so much rage. That stupid man had taken everything, and now he was taking Harry from her. "He's the man who betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort," she hissed. "And the man who brought Voldemort back."

She felt Sam shiver at her side, and he hugged her closer. "Is that why you're so angry? Do you think he'll hurt Harry or something?"

"No," she spat vehemently. "I know Harry can take care of himself, it's just…" she sighed and pulled herself out of Sam's embrace so she could look down at his face. "Listen Sam, a lot of what I'm saying isn't really common knowledge, and it's not stuff that's accepted at the Ministry."

"Have I ever broken one of your secrets, Gin?" Sam asked, for once his face was completely serious, there weren't any hints of amusement or laughter. It was a rare occurrence for her best friend, but she knew he was being completely honest and he never would tell anyone.

"No, the thing that makes me the angriest is I _want_ Harry to find him. I want him to kill him." She closed her eyes a moment at her own declaration. It sounded like such an awful thing to say about anybody, but she meant it with all her heart. "See, he's also an animungus, which is why it has been so hard to find him, even after all these years. But when Harry's parents died and Wormtail had to go into hiding, he decided that what he was going to do was find a nice magical family and settle in with them as pet rat, and he found my older brother.

"He actually lived with my family for twelve years," Ginny admitted, sinking back into Sam's friendly embrace. "Twelve years, Sam! Right there with us all along. I used to play with him when I was a little girl, take him out into the garden when my brothers were mad at me. I just—" She had to sigh loudly. "I just hate him so much."

Sam stroked her hair away from her face and let her lay in the quite for a few minutes before he started speaking again. "I hadn't realized that your family was so involved with all of this stuff. Even when I found out that you knew Harry Potter, I just… I hadn't realized."

"We were _really_ involved," Ginny admitted, though it felt strange to say it aloud. All that seemed like a lifetime away, now. "My parents, and all my brothers fought in the war and Ron was Harry's best mate so he was with Harry almost every step of the way. And since Harry was around our family so much, things started getting really dangerous for us too," Ginny laughed darkly into Sam's shoulder. "Harry's actually saved the life of every Weasley in my family. We owe him everything."

"You really like Harry don't you, Gin?" Sam asked finally.

For a minute Ginny thought about the question. "I've loved him since I was a little girl," she said finally, her voice soft. "It sounds silly, but I thought he was the greatest thing growing up and then Ron became best mates with him and he started staying at my house— and… Hermione, my friend used to tell me to just ignore Harry, that he would come around eventually, but… Everything was wrong when he did. It took him years to notice me, and then once he did he had to go off and fight the war and he didn't have time for me anymore. Everyone in my family was so involved, but they wouldn't let me do anything. I think it's one of the reasons I decided to move here. Break away from everyone, develop my own life…"

"Well, I'm glad you did, Gin," Sam whispered. "Because otherwise we never would have met and I wouldn't have ended up with such a fantastic flat mate."

Ginny smiled, the comment meant was enough to start to push away all the dark thoughts that had crept into her head since the Ministry owl had arrived. "Yeah," she teased. "Imagine if you had to share a place with Taymor!" Then she squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm sorry, Sam. I haven't had to think about things like this in years, and seeing that owl, and watching Harry run off… it just brought everything back to me. All those years…"

They lay on the couch together for another handful of minutes, Sam for once being calm and quite and Ginny lost in the thoughts that she thought she had buried when she'd moved to Oxford. Then Sam pinched her.

"Ow," she cried out. "Why did you do that?"

"Sorry," he said, she could feel him shrugging. "My fingers slipped."

Ginny pried an arm out from between them and gave his stomach a sharp pinch. "Oops, sorry. I slipped."

It was enough. Pandemonium broke loose; next a handful of Ginny's hair was twirled around Sam's fingers when she tried to push him off the couch. Then the tickling started and while Ginny was withering on the floor Mickey decided to wake up and come bounding over to join in the fun. Only when she didn't think she could breath anymore, and she was swearing to give the dog a bath tomorrow did the game end. Sam was sitting up on the floor, head lolling back on the couch, panting and giggling.

Ginny sat up and grinned at him. "Thanks, Sam," she said, feeling a lot more cheerful, and a lot more tired.

He lifted his head up and raised an eyebrow. "What for? Go to bed, Gin, it's past your bedtime."

She gave him another playful push and then crawled the distance to her room. Once the door was shut firmly behind her she pulled off her clothes and into sweats and crawled into bed. The clock on her bedside table told her it was past four in the morning, and even though she felt exhausted, she didn't feel like she could get to sleep.

Here she was in Oxford, a grown woman living on her own, at her last year at university, but her thoughts were back to those of a little girl still learning how to be a witch. She had been strong for her family, strong for Harry even, and strong for all of her classmates, but back then she had been more terrified than she had ever let on.

The war had just ended when she had made the decision to attend university and move away from her childhood home. At the time she had told her mum that she was only a pop away, and that she would write all of her brothers regularly. It wasn't like she was moving far, no farther than Ron in London or the twins at Diagon Alley and they came home all the time. But even as she had said it, she had known she was lying.

She had moved with the intention of isolating herself from everything the war had induced into her life. Waiting anxiously for order meetings to end, watching the twins turn their harmless joke ideas into weapons, praying that Harry, Hermione and Ron would survive their next adventure, watching as all the people she loved devoted their entire lives to the cause. Not that she had skimped on her commitment, though. She had made sure that she was involved every step of the way. She had sat up the long hours with her Mum when one of her brothers was out on a mission, she had stood up to her brothers when they had insisted she was too young to fight, she had done everything she possibly could.

But when she had left she had known that her family would be too busy recuperating and picking their lives back up to notice that she wasn't there anymore. She had left to escape everything she had experienced as a girl, now a lifetime away.

Ginny tossed in her bed and punched her pillow into a more comfortable shape as she thought about the girl she had been when she had first come to Oxford. She had only stayed one term in the dormitories, away from her family for the first time, away from anyone who knew her or could tell her what to do. She had been scared, but determined and had been ready to face down anyone who stood in her way.

Then she had met Sam, and she had remembered how fun it was to joke and just be silly. She remembered how much fun she and the twins used to have playing tricks and games. Before the war had started, before Hogwarts, she didn't have to worry about someone she loved dying. She and Sam had met Claire and in turn had been introduced to Evan and Taymor then her life had fallen into place. A life in Oxford, a world away from anything her former life could even touch.

In Oxford she was nothing but Ginny Weasley. She wasn't the baby, or the youngest, or a tagalong, she was nothing, but herself. She had gained her confidence back, and her strength and for the first time since Hogwarts she had enjoyed a completely normal life.

Eventually the letters to her brothers had dwindled, from here she could see the few unanswered scrolls till lying unopened on her desk. Her mum still wrote her once a month, with little notes from her dad. Hermione wrote on occasion, though not nearly as regularly and every few months if one of her brothers remembered that she wasn't sitting in the corner somewhere at the Burrow they would scrawl something and wish her well.

But she hadn't really changed, and she doubted she ever really would. She still missed her family, and wished that she saw them more often. Tomorrow she vowed she would not only answer all of the letters that were waiting on her desk, but write to every single one of her brothers, too. It was on that final thought that Ginny was finally able to close her eyes, nestle into her pillow and fall asleep.

That next day, Ginny didn't really write all the letters that she had intended to. And in the end it had been another week before she answered the ones that had been stacking up on her desk. Life had kicked back in, and it was in full swing. The first of the summer terms was ending and the homework had started pilling up worse than ever before. Then Claire had fallen sick and her shifts at the cafe had nearly doubled to help out. She still had to drive down to Bath once a week with Sam to have dinner with his mum, and the club was demanding that she pick up more shifts to help with the summer tourist crowds. And then, the incredible had happened. Evan had finally proposed to Claire. Ginny was going to be the maid of honor.

Before she knew it summer had peaked, and with it came the second term of classes which meant another round of half-day courses and chunks of homework. On top of that, she had Claire's wedding to plan. When she wasn't at work or in the library Ginny was slumming around the streets looking at locations, floral arrangements and wedding dresses. Evan, of course was no help at all, so Claire had quickly given up on asking his advice and taken to dragging Ginny along all over Britain. Not only were they planning trips to London and Edinburgh, but she was also talking about taking a trip back to France so they could speak with some of her old school friends and find something original for the wedding.

Marie, of course, was catering, and it was one area with which Evan was happy to help. Sam and Taymor were declared groomsmen, with Evan's brother posing as best man. Even though the wedding would be until next Spring, Ginny felt like she was racing a timer to get everything finished, she didn't even want to think about how stressed Claire was. Her friend had forgone the second term of summer classes to become a full time wedding planner; everything had to be absolutely perfect. After weeks they had finally decided to simply have the wedding in Paris, Evan's whole family lived in France as well as most of Claire's. It didn't make sense to half the majority of the party make their way to Britain when only a handful of people had to get to Paris.

By the time her birthday had passed and August was dwindling to an end Ginny thought a lifetime had gone by since the lazy summer nights of June only two months ago. Sometimes she wondered how she had managed and then Hedwig would be tapping on her bedroom window and she would remember: Harry.

Since two nights after he had run out of her flat bound for headquarters he had been writing to her on a weekly basis. Though sometimes she was sure that he wasn't supposed to be sending owls, because his notes would be a sentence or two long, telling her not to worry, he was being watched so he couldn't say much, but he would write her soon. Even when he was able to write more, he couldn't tell her much. Nothing was revealed about where he was or what he was doing. Mostly they just talked about the things going on in Ginny's life. She wrote to him about her exams, and about planning Claire's wedding, and about what happened the other night when she was serving up drinks at the club, or something funny Sam had done or Taymor had said.

He was a good audience, too. Whenever Ginny wrote to Hermione or one of her family members she couldn't tell them stories about her friends, people they didn't know and didn't understand. Even though Harry had only met them on two occasions he told her he enjoyed hearing her stories and about what she was doing with her life, he liked knowing what was going on. Something normal, he had written to her, the things that Ginny wrote to him about were so simple that they kept him grounded.

Then finally, the letter that she had been waiting for all summer arrived, on the very last night of August. Harry was coming home; he would be back in three days and wanted to have dinner that night.

"What he really means is he wants to—" Sam tried to explain when Ginny told him about her next date with Harry, two months after their first. She had elbowed him in the ribs to keep him from saying something vulgar.

"None of that, Sam," Ginny scolded. She was standing in the bathroom, trying to arrange all of the pins in her hair so that the curls stayed in place, just right. When Harry came to pick her up, she wanted to look perfect. For some reason, Sam thought that he was helping by sitting on the edge of the bathtub and making all kinds of rude comments about what she and Harry were going to do later.

"All I'm saying, Ginny," Sam said, pulling himself out of the bathtub where Ginny had pushed him. "Is that a man doesn't write a woman for two months while he's on the road, without expecting—" Ginny's foot swiveled to kick him back down into the tub. She heard his head hit the tile and hoped it hurt.

"Man, Gin, love makes you violent!" Sam teased, rubbing his head, though there was a grin on his face.

She glared at him and reached for another pin. "Honestly, Sam, do you really think you're helping?"

"No," Sam said smirking. "Helping would be telling you that you only have five more minutes before Harry is supposed to be here."

Ginny cursed, and dropped the pin in the sink, the strand of hair she had been trying to force back fell down around her face. "Damn it, Sam, why didn't you tell me!" She grabbed the pin from the sink, twirled her hair up and pushed the pin in, no longer carrying about it looking just right. She still didn't know what shoes she was going to wear, and one of her earrings was missing.

She ran back into her room, and started tossing aside discarded outfits from earlier to look for her missing jewelry. Halfway through digging around in a purse she was sure she hadn't used since last Christmas she heard the unmistakable sound of Mickey crashing down the hallway and Sam frantically chasing after him. Cursing again, she grabbed the first pair of shoes she saw, stuffed her feet in and resolved to clean her room tomorrow to find that damn earring, but for now she wasn't going to bother with it.

"—late as usual," Sam was saying when Ginny stepped out of her room, still fumbling with the clasp on her shoe and trying not to fall.

And there he was. Standing in the hall, ignoring Sam's steady commentary and staring at her with a sweet smile, as if he had never left.

"Right," Sam said, looking between them. "Mickey and I are going to head to the café…" neither Harry or Ginny paid him any attention. "Okay then… bye?"

Ginny blinked, noticing her best friend again. "Bye, Sam, I'll see you later."

Even after Sam had left, Harry was still leaning against the wall in the hallways, smiling at her.

"What," Ginny said, suddenly self-conscious.

"Nothing," Harry said, blinking and shaking his head. "I'm really glad you wrote to me while I was gone, Ginny."

"It was nothing, Harry, you know I was just rambling on, I didn't have anything important to say anyways," she told him.

He lifted a shoulder casually. "I guess that depends on what you think is important."

"I'm glad you're back, Harry," she told him, and she was.

He winced. "Actually, I had to lie to you," he admitted. "I've been back for about two weeks now, but we were still working on some undercover things. I was under strict house arrest, no one was allowed to know any of us were back so I'll I've been able to see is the inside of my flat and a ministry holding cell."

"You got him then?" Ginny asked, stomach clinching. If they finally got Wormtail after all these years…

"No," Harry said, smile fading instantly from his face. Ginny was almost immediately sorry she had asked. "But we got someone else, I can't talk about it yet, but it was good." There was an awkward silence and then, "I really missed you, Ginny."

He had said it so softly, she wasn't even sure she heard him correctly. "Missed me?" She said. "How could you possibly have missed me, we hadn't spoken in years up until two months ago."

A smile flickered back on his lips. "I know, but I still missed you."

"So where are we gong tonight?" asked Ginny, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Back into London, if that's alright with you?" He asked, suddenly anxious. "Or would you prefer to stay in Oxford… I know you don't like leaving so…"

"No, no," Ginny said before he could talk himself out of the night he had planned. "London is fine, I haven't been in the city in a while now." It was true; the last time she had been in London was a good two years back when she had gone to visit her dad at the Ministry for lunch. Claire wanted to drag her there to look at dresses, but so far they hadn't had the chance too.

Harry pushed away from the wall and held out his arm to her, lips twitching up into a smile. "Do you mind if I apparate you?"

The space between them was closed with a few unsteady steps from Ginny before she remembered that she still hadn't gotten her shoes fastened all the way. Then once she was all fixed up she straightened and placed her slim arm on Harry's own, feeling his tighten beneath hers.

"Ready when you are," she told him. Then the world swirled away and she felt herself pop into existence a moment later in a back alley off one of London's busy streets. When they landed, Harry was much closer to her than he had been when they had left, and his other hand was over her arm tightly.

She was rather hoping that he'd keep hold of her arm when they arrived, but once they arrived, he dropped it.

"Wow, you're a lot better at that than I am," Ginny admitted. "I always get so dizzy during apparation."

"Me, too," Harry admitted with a sheepish grin. "But, I get in a lot of practice, and I hate feeling sick like that, so I've worked really hard at making it as painless as possible. So," he said leading the way back onto the street. "Do you like Italian?"

"Love it," Ginny responded, following behind though she was starting to shiver. It was a lot colder out that night than she had thought. The summer skirt and shirt she had worn were not as suitable for the September night in London as it had been in Oxford.

Luckily enough, the restaurant Harry had picked was only around the corner, so she didn't get the opportunity to develop a chill. It was a nice place, and Ginny was surprise at how good the food was.

This time around their conversation flowed much easier than it had during their first date, despite the time lapse. Since they had started writing to one another again, they were a lot more caught up on what was going on in each other's lives. So Ginny told Harry about the wedding she was helping to plan and a good story about Sam and Taymor from and their antics from the night before. The two boys had gotten plastered and were nearly arrested by the muggle police for disturbing the peace. Claire had distracted the police by setting off a series of car alarms on the next road over in order to get the boys off the hook.

Harry laughed happily at the stories, and to the punishment that Ginny described as the one Claire had picked out for the two boys for ruining her night. In turn he told Ginny more about his job (though not much) and about living with Ron. Apparently in the time he had spent locked up in his flat he had grown even more annoyed with Ron and Hermione's habits than over the years before.

"It's worse than ever, now," he admitted, sipping at a glass of wine as they talked over desert and waited for the check. "Hermione is over all the time, and as much as I love her…"

"I know what you mean," Ginny commented dryly. "Hermione and I were the only girls remember, we always bunked up. Thank goodness we never had to dorm together at Hogwarts or I would have been sleeping in the common room every night!"

Harry laughed. "It's not just that its…" he squirmed uncomfortably. "Ron would kill me for tell you of all people but…"

Now eager to hear what he had to say Ginny leaned forward. "What, Harry? Now you have to tell me, you can't just leave a girl hanging like that."

"Well," he bit his lip. "It's the _noise_."

"What?" Ginny asked. "Hermione is bossy, but she's not really noisy, and… _oh_," she commented significantly as he noticed Harry's embarrassed expression. "Oh… I see," she said, blinking in shock. Yes, that was something she really didn't need to know about Ron and Hermione's relationship.

"Exactly," Harry said with a slight shiver. "They are both my best mates, but there is only so much I can be asked to handle."

"What about a silencing charm or something?" Ginny asked.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I put one on my room every night, but they don't ever bother. Anyways, I spoke to him about it last week and he promised to start spending more time at Hermione's place. She doesn't have a roommate, so theoretically they would want to stay there more, but her place is smaller and Ron complains that it's too tidy."

The subject of her brother didn't last long, and soon Ginny was watching Harry pay the check. He had it settled in a moment and then suddenly they were both left standing out front of the restaurant trying to decide on what to do next.

"Did you have anything in mind?" Ginny asked as she rubbed her legs together and tucked her hands against her chest to warm them up. Her bare legs were not at all happy about the skirt now that night had settled and the wind was starting to pick up. She didn't know what she had been thinking wearing something like this out.

"I don't know really," Harry said bashfully. "I didn't plan any farther than this, I just wanted to see you." Ginny blushed. "We could take in a movie or something, or maybe see if there are any shows playing?"

Ginny wrinkled her nose. "I don't know much about movies. Sam and I don't have a television and none of my friends really go to the cinema ever. We're usually too busy."

Harry was staring at her. "No television? Even _I_ convinced your brother to get one, we have one at our flat."

"_You_ convinced _Ron_, as in _my_ brother, to get a _muggle_ television?" Ginny asked incredulously. She found that very hard to believe.

His nose wrinkled. "Er—well actually Hermione did, but I helped."

Ginny laughed and pushed him playfully. "Did you now?"

"Yeah," he laughed and then he caught her arm before she could push him again and drew her off to the side of the street. "Hey, listen—it's getting pretty cold out here—"

"Is it, Harry? I hadn't really noticed," Ginny responded sarcastically.

He gave her a dry look, but the smile remained none-the-less so Ginny allowed herself one little butterfly in her stomach. "Well, what I meant was—it's not really a night to be out on the town, so I was wondering it maybe you would like to go to my place for dessert and a glass of wine? Hermione's left a bunch of old movies there that I'm sure you haven't seen."

In a way that had nothing to do with her chill, Ginny could feel herself warming up at his touch. "Sure, Harry. I would love to," then she hesitated. "Do you think Ron would be there? I don't want to be rude, but I also don't want to run into my brother tonight," she added. Why did Harry have to be best friends with her brother?

Harry pulled a face too; he seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her because he was shaking his head. Neither one of them were very anxious to run into her brother when they were on a date.

"Well," he said. "He was leaving for Hermione's when I left, so they should be there tonight, but if you aren't sure then…"

"No," Ginny relented. "We can go, if Ron isn't there then I'd love to see your flat."

The smile sparked back up on Harry's face and he held his arm out again. "Can I apparate us again? You've never been there before…" Ginny didn't answer, but just slipped into his embrace, letting his arm fall across her waist as he led them into the nearest alley. The last thing she remembered before apparating away was looking up at Harry's smiling face as the world disappeared around her.

When the rematerialized again, Ginny was standing in what was definitely the flat of two young wizards, and the absolute polar opposite of any of her friend's places in Oxford. It was very nice, and rather spacious, and from the look of it, Ginny knew it wasn't anywhere near what her brother would have been able to afford. A good guess would be that Harry was lying to Ron about how much rent he needed to pay and she was sure that all of the furniture had to be Harry's as well.

"Don't tell Ron," Harry said, picking up Ginny's thoughts from her expression. She turned to him and caught his embarrassed smile. "I cut his rent in half and told him it was normal. He doesn't need to see the bills."

Ginny gave him a sweet smile; he really did have a good heart. "I won't tell, Merlin knows that Ron wouldn't know what standard rent would be, but Hermione knows right?"

For a moment Ginny watched as Harry got himself comfortable by rolling up his sleeves and running his hand through his hair several times, then she turned to look at the rest of the place. It was a mess, clothes, and dishes were everywhere. Random magical toys were buzzing around the place and she even recognized some of the twin's merchandise sticking out from the couch cushions and rolling around on the floor.

She turned back at Harry with a wicked grin. "Did my mum teach you nothing?"

Harry didn't look too embarrassed, rather his eyes sparkled. "Don't forget, I've seen your flat too, Ginny, and you can't tell me Mrs. Weasley would approve of that mess."

"No, I guess not," Ginny relented, "but at least our mess is clean, you guys are just—dirty." To illustrate her point she lifted up a book from the kitchen table and examined the dusty outline it left.

"Right," Harry said, pushing the book down on the table. "But in my defense, I work long hours. Ron and Hermione spend more time here than I do, and _my_ room is clean, thank you."

Ginny turned and crossed her arms. "You mean Hermione can stand to be in this mess?"

"Nope, but every time she tries to clean, Ron just makes a bigger mess, and honestly—I think she's given up," he explained. "Do you want the tour?"

She looked around and felt that everything was pretty straight forward, but she gave Harry a small, "Yes, please," anyways.

"The kitchen is through this way," Harry said showing her to the first small rooms. Surprisingly enough it was much cleaner than the main room, and all of the appliances were in much better condition than the ones in her place. "Here, let me get you a glass of wine while we're in here. White or red?"

"White, please," Ginny said and watched as he opened a cabinet and pulled out a fresh bottle, opened another and grabbed two glasses, popped the cork and poured them each a glass. When he was done he handed Ginny hers with a small smile, placed a hand on her back and then led her back into the main room.

"The living room of course, which you've already complimented so graciously," Harry teased, still leading her to the back of the room, to which Ginny had no objections. He stopped and dropped his hand when the reached the end of the hall and pointed through three open doorways. "Ron's room is to the left," he said, and Ginny caught a peak of a room that was barely recognizable as a bedroom. It looked as if a laundry bomb had gone off in there, but there was thankfully no orange.

"My office is in the middle," Harry pointed and opened the door to a rather tidy, and oddly plain looking office that really wasn't anything special. Then he shut that door and pointed through to the last door on the right. "And my room," he finished, adding a, "Much cleaner than Ron's, thank you."

Ginny laughed and craned her neck to get a good look in. It definitely was a lot cleaner than her brothers, but it was still ridiculously messy. Shoes and laundry littered the floor, the bed was unmade and various robes hung off whatever surface was available.

"So, what kind of movie do you think you want to watch?" Harry was saying, as he led her back down the hall to the living room. A sudden, loud crack interrupted Ginny's answer.

They both froze and Ginny's stomach did a flip. Oh god, she did _not_ want to see Ron right now. She could just imagine how he would react to seeing her with Harry. Not that he would necessarily disapprove, but the last thing she wanted was her brother hovering over her while she was on a date. Harry seemed to have the same sentiment, he cursed and then his hand seemed to automatically fly up to grip her arm.

"Harry? Are you home?" Ron called out, and his footsteps suddenly echoed down the hall. Harry and Ginny exchanged a panic induced look and then they heard Hermione.

"Harry, honey, we stopped and picked up some Chinese, are you hungry?" She said, and they heard the crinkle of delivery bags.

"I think they're going to the kitchen," Harry whispered quickly. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I didn't think they'd be home tonight, at least for a while longer."

Ginny gave a little shrug, really it wasn't a big deal, but she didn't want her date to get cut off just because of her brother. She bit her lip and gave Harry a small smile. "Couldn't we just watch a movie in your room, or something? They don't have to know I'm here, do they?"

Harry seemed to become aware that he was still holding onto her arm and released it slowly, as if reluctantly. "Sounds perfect," he told her, returning the smile. They held the gaze a fraction too long and then they heard the footsteps approaching again.

"Say hello, grab that bottle of wine and a movie and I'll wait for you," Ginny said, giving him a little push towards the living room. Honestly for an Auror, Harry wasn't thinking too fast on his feet. She gave him one last encouraging smile and then ducked into the room that Harry had said was his and snapped the door closed.

She wasn't sure why she was so paranoid about Ron finding out she was with Harry, but things were still too new for her to want to share this with him, at least, not yet. Ron would either be overprotective, or pushy, and she would be able to bear it if she and Harry had Ron breathing down their necks trying to get them together. She was sure that Harry was interested in her, and she knew that she still liked him, but neither of them knew where this was going yet, and if things didn't end up working out, she didn't want Ron involved. And if Ron knew, her brothers knew, her mum knew, her dad knew, and well, she wasn't ready for that.

There wasn't really anything to hear through the door as the kitchen was on the other side of the flat, so Ginny backed into Harry's room to take a more in depth look. Really, Harry didn't have a lot of stuff. She saw some old Hogwarts books stacked on a shelf, and a few rolls of parchment littered the floor, but he didn't have much by means of personal possessions. His old Firebolt was sitting in the corner, which made her smile. She hadn't had much time to get out on a broom in a good while. Not since hers had broken in a game with her brothers last year.

She turned to examine the things on Harry's dresser. There were some letters, most in her mum's handwriting, and she even noticed one of two signed by Fred and George. There was also one framed picture of Harry's mum and dad hugging one another and smiling at the camera. Ginny picked it up, looked at them and smiled. Her mum and dad had told her what fantastic people Lily and James Potter had been. She just knew they would be proud if they could see their son today.

"Quit it, Ron!" Ginny turned around, Harry did not sound at all pleased, even through the door.

She heard someone come to a hurried stop outside the door and then more running footsteps following.

"Oh, come on, Harry. Tell us, who've you got in there?" That was definitely Ron's voice; he sounded just as annoying now as he had back when they were kids, Ginny thought.

"I told you its nobody!" Harry snapped back, making Ginny smile gain, poor Harry.

Next she heard Hermione's giggle and could just imagine the look on her old friend's face. Really, it had been a long time since they had seen one another, Ginny did miss her. "You had a date tonight, Harry. Look at you, all dressed up! Tell us, where did you go?"

Harry sighed heavily. "Can't I just go to bed in peace?"

"Hey, 'Mione, he's got someone in there, I know it," Ron joked with his usual tact. "Who's the bird, Harry? Come on, you can tell your best mate!"

"Shut up, Ron," was all Harry said in answer.

"Aw, come on, Ron. Do let's stop teasing him," Hermione said. "Look, he's trying to be all romantic—he even has a bottle of wine. He doesn't want us to bother them."

Ginny walked over to the door, stifling a giggle, and pressed her ear against the wood just in time to hear Harry sigh. Really this was just as good as a pair of extendable ears. "I though you guys were going to start spending more time at Hermione's anyways, we talked about this."

"Couldn't tonight," was Ron's cheerful reply.

"Why?" That was Harry again, voice sharpening.

"Um… Harry, my stuff is all here? I get bored at Hermione's place. All she has are books."

Ginny closed her eyes and shook her head; sometimes she wondered how her brother survived at all. He was lucky to have a friend like Harry, or else he probably would be living at the Burrow complaining to their mum.

"Oh, come on, Ron," Hermione interrupted. "Let's stop, we did interrupt his night. If he doesn't want to share with his oldest, dearest, and best friends, then that's fine."

There was a long pause.

"No, Hermione," was all Harry said.

Ron seemed to give in then, too. "Ah, fine, Harry. Go have yourself a good shag then, you can just tell me about it tomorrow morning."

"Ron!" Hermione cried out, and Ginny clearly heard the sound of what she hoped was her brother being pushed rather roughly by his girlfriend. "How inappropriate! Let's just go back and finish dinner, I'm starved."

At the mention of food there was a sudden increase of footsteps as Ron and Hermione retreated back down the hall. Ginny stepped back from the door, anticipating Harry, with a big smile on her face as she tried not to laugh.

A moment later when the footsteps had faded away, the door opened and Harry entered, carrying the bottle of wine in one hand and looking like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The television floated in after him and after a flick of his wand to clear things away he had it settling on his dresser. Then Harry shut the door, locked it, and spelled all the sound to remain in the room. Finally he turned to Ginny.

Ginny stood smiling, arms crossed over her chest. "You know, Harry, I don't think Ron would have said that if he knew he was talking about his baby sister."

"Nah," Harry agreed, but he still looked a little embarrassed, he ran a nervous hand through his hair. "I don't think so. Look, Ginny, I'm really sorry about all this—"

"Trust me, Harry, I grew up with the git. You don't need to apologize for him to me," Ginny said, and then her tone softened. "And I understand about the situation, I really don't want Ron to see me here either."

Harry looked slightly relieved; he set the bottle of wine down and then looked at Ginny again. "I hope you don't think I'm a terrible person for it. I just don't want Ron knowing my business right now."

"Me neither," Ginny said, but she was perking up at trying to figure out just what Harry might mean. "My brothers tend to scare guys away. I learned a long time ago not to let them get too involved with me life without a good reason."

There was a short silence and then Harry took another step forward. "You know, I really do care about you, Ginny."

She wasn't sure she could trust her voice so Ginny just nodded and waited for Harry to go on.

"I mean," Harry shook his head, nervous again and ran another hand through his hair. Ginny smiled at his habit, it was adorable. "I really want to see more of you," he gave her a sharp look as if seeing her standing there for the first time. "Er—that is, if that's okay with you?"

Ginny tried to respond with a casual shrug, but she couldn't lose the smile on her face. "Yeah, Harry. I think I'd really like that." Her head felt like she was spinning.

This time Harry seemed to relax as his smile grew. "Really? I was worried that, because of Hogwarts, you know," he faltered off, looking flustered again.

Deciding to close the distance between them, Ginny took the step forward and put both of her palms on Harry's chest. "Harry, I never held a grudge against you for that, never. We were only kids—I was sixteen for god's sake! Besides you had a lot more important things to worry about than me, back then."

Harry put his arms around her slowly and looked down at her. Ginny knew she wasn't _that_ short, but until now she hadn't realized that Harry had grown taller over the years. He would never be as tall as Ron, but he had come more into himself than the scrawny boy she had known back at school.

"But _you_ were important to me," he told her, squeezing her a little. "It was because you were important that we couldn't see each other." His smile grew sad. "I wanted to see you after things were all over, but then your family told me you had moved to Oxford and… Well it didn't seem right for me to come back into your life after you had moved on. You had university, and a whole other world that I couldn't be a part of. I didn't think you would welcome seeing me again."

"Oh, Harry," Ginny said, biting her lip. She felt a little bad, because when she had moved to Oxford, she _had_ forgotten all about him. She really had created a whole new world for herself, away from everything he had ever been a part of. Until Harry had run into her in Oxford, she had barely given him the passing thought. "I'm so sorry," she wasn't sure how to explain to him, or even if an explanation was needed. "But, if it's worth anything. I would be really glad to have you in my life now."

His answer was a kiss, soft and gentle, which Ginny met hungrily and then deepened. Surprisingly enough, he broke it off first. "I don't want to mess anything up this time, Ginny," he told her as he stood back up. "I didn't deserve you back at Hogwarts, and I want to make sure that I'm good enough to be with you now." He smiled down at her, still holding her close against his body. "Why don't we just rest and watch a movie together?"

Something in Ginny didn't want to rest and watch a movie, but she knew it was for the better, so she let Harry pick something out that he said was Hermione's favorite. Then she jumped on top of Harry's bed with him so they could both lie back against the headboard and watch it together. When she tried to think back on that moment later, she couldn't remember what the movie was about, and realized she had never been paying attention to it. The only thing that she was aware of was lying in Harry's arms, her head pillowed against his chest, until she slowly fell asleep.

The next morning Ginny awoke to light kisses on both of her eyelids and Harry whispering in her ear. She was tucked in Harry's bed, warm blankets all around her, though she didn't remember getting under the covers, or even falling asleep. Harry was lying next to her, holding her against him with one arm.

Ginny groaned and snuggled more firmly in the covers, and coincidentally, against Harry. "No, I don't want to wake up," she whispered sleepily. She hated mornings.

"It's already nine thirty, Ginny," Harry whispered in her ear again. Then to her disgust he sat up and started to push the covers off himself, causing them to slip off Ginny as well.

"No," Ginny repeated, and pulled for the covers again.

Harry fell back into bed and his arm reached around her again, then he settled back next to her. He was able to lie still for a moment before his fingers began tickling the back of her neck and the side of her cheek. "Come on, Ginny. The sun is up… you can't lay in bed all morning," he teased.

Jerking her head away from his fingers, Ginny did her best to try and stay grumpy, but it was an impossible thing to do with Harry lying right next to her, tickling the back of her neck. He was making her laugh so she tossed until she had turned fully around and was facing Harry again, their heads laying on the same pillow.

"Good morning, Ginny," he said, looking so awake it was sick.

"You're disgusting, you know that?" Ginny answered him, but she couldn't help but give him a little smile.

"Funny, but that's what Ron says, too," Harry answered. "I don't think anyone in the Weasley family, but your mum, is a morning person. You lot really like your sleep."

At that thought Ginny laughed. "If you had grown up in my house, with my brothers, you'd learn to treasure sleep, too. Believe it or not, things had settled down by the time you started coming around."

"Oh, really?" Harry teased, but Ginny didn't think that he had been paying attention to her since he was playing with her hair and watching as he ran it through his fingers.

"Yes, really," Ginny said, rolling over on her back so that she could stretch out. She had fallen asleep fully clothed, and unfortunately the outfit she had worn the night before wasn't entirely comfortable for sleeping in. Reluctant to leave the warmth of the bed, she sat up and stretched out some more kinks.

The blankets fell back down around her waist, and pulled off Harry's chest as she moved. She noticed that at least he had had enough time to get changed for bed. He wasn't wearing anything, but comfy looking black sweat pants, and she could see from the muscles outlined on his chest that all those years training for Quidditch, and to be an Auror had done him good.

"You look really pretty with your hair down, Ginny," Harry said, pulling himself up against the headboard so that he was in a sitting position.

Ginny gathered the hair at the back of her neck and ran her fingers through it, feeling a little self-conscious. She was a bit vain about her hair, but it was just too long to wear down, so she usually tried to keep it pinned up. She felt around for any lose pins, but remembered that she had pulled them out during the movie last night so they would stop poking her in the head when she rested against Harry.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" Ron's voice called through the door as he started pounding with his fists.

Ginny rolled her eyes and looked back at Harry. "I see my brother is as charming as always. I don't know how you live with him. I did it for sixteen years, and couldn't bear a second of it."

Harry laughed and reached his arms up so that he could pull Ginny back to him. "Oh, he's not so bad—most of the time," he amended.

She gave him a little chaste kiss and then pulled back playfully when he would have deepened it. "Well, next time, I say you come to my place. I've spent enough years getting woken up by my brother to not need to repeat the experience."

"Not even for nostalgic sake?" Harry asked, wrapping his arms around her more firmly. "So, when do you expect that to be?" It sounded like he was trying to make his voice casual and Ginny was rather pleased that he failed miserably.

"Well," Ginny told him as she rested her head down at the nape of his neck so he wouldn't see her expression as she talked. "You could come over tonight?" She held her breath hopefully and waited for him to answer. "That is if you don't have plans."

She felt him kiss the top of her head. "I would love to come over tonight, you don't have to work do you?"

A groan escaped Ginny's lips. "Damn, I forgot, I don't get off until ten," she sat up and looked at Harry. "You could come by the café again and hang out with the guys. Or… we _could_ just reschedule for another night," but she really didn't want to.

This time Harry sat up, with Ginny toppling off him, so that he could stretch out as well. It only drew more attention to his chest, though he didn't seem to notice, he was too busy reaching for his glasses. "I'd love to," he told her when he had his glasses fixed in place and could see her properly. "I had a lot of fun with your friends before."

"Well," Ginny said twirling her fingers in the sheets. "What do you want to do now?"

Harry opened his mouth to respond, but Ron started banging on the door again. "Harry, wake up, breakfast is ready!"

"Ron cooks now?" Ginny asked skeptically.

"No," Harry admitted. "Thank goodness. Hermione does. Do you want to go grab breakfast somewhere else?" He asked, reaching a hand out to rub against her arm. "I actually have lunch with your brothers at about noon, but I have time to spend some more time with you."

"Which brothers?" Ginny asked suspiciously. All six of her brothers lived in Britain now, and had since the war ended. Harry was close with all of them, though Ron was his best friend, so he could mean any of them.

"Fred and George," Harry told her with a smile. "Technically, I own one third of their enterprise, so we have monthly meetings to go over the figures and see if I need to fund anymore projects."

For a moment Ginny thought about her brothers. She hadn't seen Fred or George in ages, and she missed their jokes. None of her friends back in Oxford ever ventured into the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes so they didn't know what it was like to have to watch out for a canary cream or fake wand.

"I didn't know you were still a part of all that," Ginny admitted. She knew Harry had been their initial benefactor, but the twins were more than able to pay Harry back and support themselves within their first year out of Hogwarts.

Harry shrugged. "I like it, and the twins won't let me leave every time I try. So, breakfast?"

She wrinkled her nose in disappointment. "Not today, I'm afraid. If you're coming by later tonight I have some homework to finish, and you have lunch with the twins anyways, so it would be rushed."

"Homework," he said, shaking his head. "Why does that seem like a lifetime ago?"

"Because," she said poking him playfully on the chest, and liking the feeling of his bare skin beneath her hand. "You've been out of school for six years."

"And you went running back, the first opportunity you had," he finished, capturing her hand and pinning it against him. She didn't try to pull away.

"I'll see you tonight, Harry," she said softly, already starting to move out of bed. "Come by whenever you fancy, we'll be at the café for a while." She started to turn, but he still hadn't released her hand.

"Wait, you forgot something," he said, pulling her back. He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips, when he pulled back he released her hand and fell back into bed. "I'll see you later."

Ginny couldn't resist throwing a pillow at him for being so cocky before she left, but then she disapperated back to her flat.

"Good date, I take it?" Sam asked when she popped into the living room. He was sitting on the couch reading a textbook and taking notes. He didn't even look up when she arrived.

"Perfect," she told him.


	5. One Day I Will Wake Up, And It Will All

Love Is Like A Rose

By liquid lily

Chapter 5: One Day I Will Wake Up, And It Will All Fit Together

The kitchen smelled like fresh baked bread. Marie was baking a tray of croissants and idly experimenting with a new recipe for chocolate torte that she had come across. The café was virtually empty; there was just one table of students working on a project. The only attention they required from their waitress was the occasional refill of a cup of coffee leaving Ginny with the opportunity to sit in the back. Sunday afternoons were her favorite day to work, especially at this time of year. It was just starting to get chilly outside, but the kitchen was still nice and cozy.

Claire had stopped by, even though it was her day off, so they could work on wedding arrangements. Ginny had an essay she really should have been paying more attention to, but her notes were quickly covered over with lists of names of people to invite to the wedding as well as bridal magazines. Claire still hadn't found a dress, and even though the wedding was more than six months away, she was starting to panic that she would never find the right one.

"Mama, do you think I should invite my old dorm mates from Beauxbatons?" Claire was asking while Ginny thumbed through a magazine.

In her opinion, Claire's guest list was already far too long, but she couldn't tell her friend that. Instead she said, "I didn't think you got along with them."

"She didn't," Marie commented dryly. "She used to write me every week about what horrid cows they were. So I really don't see why you'd invite them, love."

Claire let her pen hover over the names of the four French girls and paused in thought. "It would be the polite thing to do. Jacqueline invited me to her wedding last year, though I think it was only because she married Henry and he and I were partners in potions class for four years." She stuck the end of her pen in her mouth, chewed it thoughtfully for a moment and then glanced up at Ginny. "What do you think, Ginny? Would you invite your dorm mates from Hogwarts to your wedding?"

Making a face, Ginny firmly shook her head. "No way, we did not get along by any means. But then again I don't think I would invite," she tried to read the list Claire had in front of her upside down. "My tailor _or_ my manicurist."

"Hey," Claire commented defensively, while Marie snorted. "I happen to be very close to Mr. Carroll and Roxanne."

Ginny rolled her eyes and mumbled something apologetic. "Fine, what do you think of the yellow then?" She pushed the magazine across the table so Claire could see the ad for the bridesmaid dresses.

"I don't think so," Claire told her, and pushed the magazine back without a second thought. "I was thinking something blue, maybe periwinkle."

"Just as long as you don't chose pink," Ginny said with a slight shiver.

"I wouldn't do that to you, Gin," Claire said. "But, I do think you look good in blue."

"Who will the other bridesmaid's be?" Ginny asked as she tossed aside the magazine and reached for another. Claire had taken to carrying stacks around with her.

"Evan's sister Violet, and my cousin Chelsea," said Claire.

"Hmm," Ginny remarked thoughtfully. "I don't know who I would have my bridesmaid's be. I mean you'd have to be my maid of honor of course."

"Of course," Claire responded.

"And then I suppose Hermione would be one of the bridesmaids," she thought down the list. "I'm not really close to any other of my brother's girlfriends, and I wouldn't want any of my dorm mates… definitely not Fleur, even though I was in her wedding party…" She broke off her train of thought. "You know, I don't think I really have any girlfriends, is that weird or what?"

Claire shrugged. "You're asking the wrong person, you're my only gal pal, Gin."

"Maybe Luna," Ginny said, continuing her train of thought. "I was close to her in Hogwarts, though we haven't really talked in years, so I don't suppose that would be very appropriate."

"Who's Luna?" Claire asked as she vigorously crossed a name off the list.

Ginny shrugged. "Friend from school. She's traveling now, never really stays in one place for long, so I wouldn't even know how to get a hold of her if I could."

She stopped flipping through the magazine and drifted off, thinking about Luna. Last she had heard she was traveling as a corresponded for the Quibbler. On occasion Ginny would pick up a copy and read her article for a laugh and miss her old friend, but they had lost touch once Luna had started her travels.

"Tonks, maybe," she added, her thoughts drifting to the Auror she used to spend time with at Headquarters. She was living with Remus in the country now, even though they couldn't marry. "She's a bit older than me, she was always a fun woman to be around."

Claire didn't respond, she was scratching out the names of her dorm mates vehemently.

"I think I'll go check on my students," she said as she realized it had been a good fifteen minutes since she had been on the floor.

"Here, take them a plate of biscuits," Marie said, setting a plate on the counter stacked with a variety of their specialties. "On the house."

"I though those were for us," Claire pouted. "Or you could just make us some of your famous cocoa…"

Ginny collected the plate with a grin in Marie's direction and left the mother and daughter to bicker about the afternoon snack.

The students were all crowded around the front table, as she had left them. They seemed to be in a study group and she recognized the signs of no sleep and stress easily. Her term had started not too long ago, but she still had a good month before her first exams started, so luckily those days were still far away. She filled their coffee mugs, without receiving much of a response. Then one of the boys recognized her from the club so she chatted to him for a few minutes about bartending. As she left she offered them the biscuits, and the moment the words 'on the house' were out of her mouth they tucked in with glee.

"Actually, Marie," Ginny said as she pushed through the door to the kitchen. "Those lemon biscuits looked pretty tasty—Harry."

She paused; Harry was sitting at the counter next to Sam, accepting a mug from Marie. Mickey came running over to make his hello known, so she bent down gave him a quick scratch on the nose.

"It's my famous blend, dear," Marie was telling Harry as he took the first sip, acknowledging Ginny with a faint tilt of his head. "And there's a mug for you as well, Ginny.

Ginny's eyes drifted to the third mug resting on the counter. Sam had his hands wrapped around the other. "Harry dropped by the flat when I was on my way out so I told him to tag along since I was on shift anyways."

"Hope you don't mind, Ginny," Harry said a little sheepishly. "I was just going to see if you wanted dinner," he turned to Marie. "This is very good, thank you."

"Of course she doesn't mind," Claire answered for her. She had abandoned her guest list and was leaning back in her chair so that she could better admire Harry.

"You are more than welcome, any time," Marie said with a final pat to Harry's arm. "But, Ginny is still on schedule until six, so you'll have to wait a bit for dinner," she started moving towards the fridge. "However, I'll fix you up a nice snack to hold you over."

"What about me?" Sam butted in, sticking out his bottom lip.

Marie stuck her head out from behind the fridge door and glared. "You, Mr. Green, are late for your shift. As a punishment, you can take over Ginny's table and give her a break."

Sam rolled his eyes and glanced down at the table. "What, a break from wedding arrangements?" his eyes settled on Ginny again. "Wow, Gin, you sure are busy."

"Shut up," she told him and strode forward to the counter. She gave Harry a smile and reached for her mug of cocoa. "I thought you were busy all weekend?" She asked. She hadn't seen him since their last date on Thursday. The weekend had caught up with her, and she had ended up having to work at the club on both Friday and Saturday night. Harry had been busy during both days, so they hadn't been able to get together.

He grinned at her. "I got off early, so I wanted to drop by."

She wanted to kiss him and show him how much she had missed him over the past few days, but they still weren't at the point where they were comfortable showing off their affection yet. Instead she had to settle for a longing look and a shy smile, which Harry quickly covered up when Marie approached again.

"Chips and a sandwich for the young man," Marie said, settling the plate down gently. "Now go join my daughter at the table and mind you don't get crumbs all over Ginny's homework." Ginny gave Harry an apologetic grin and watched as he slid off the stool and retreated to the table. "And you, Samuel," she said. "I want you out on that floor like I told you. Ginny, you sit down with Harry and help him finish those chips."

In mock seriousness Ginny saluted her boss. "Yes, ma'am," she told her as she followed her orders and collapsed into a chair next to Harry and stole a chip off his plate.

"What are you working on?" Harry asked Claire after Sam slipped onto the floor.

"Wedding plans," said Claire in a squeaking voice. She still got overly excited when anyone asked her about it. "We set the date for next May."

Ginny tried to exchange a look with Marie, but the woman was in the back of the kitchen working on something else. Instead she had to call out, "I don't know why it has taken so long," she glanced back at her best friend. "I mean, we've only been expecting this forever." She grabbed another chip off Harry's plate. "They're like Ron and Hermione."

To her surprise Harry started coughing and needed a long sip of warm cocoa before he calmed down.

"Harry," Ginny said slowly. "What do you know? Did my brother finally propose?"

The pale look Harry gave the table was enough to tell Ginny all she needed. She squealed and clapped her hands together, sharing an excited yelp with Claire as they thought of the prospects of another wedding.

"No, no, Ginny," Harry said desperately, catching on of her hands in the air and bringing it back down to the table. "Don't get excited yet. She said no."

"What?" Claire demanded while Ginny was left at a loss for words. "Who says no?"

"One of my best mate's apparently," Harry told Claire dryly, though he gave Ginny's hand a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry. She told Ron she would say yes next time."

Harry glanced down at her hand, as if he suddenly aware of their contact, and let it slip from his grip. "She loves Ron, but she said his proposal wasn't romantic enough. He only gets one more chance to get it right, though. I think he's going to try and ask her at Christmas."

"Sounds like a particular woman," Marie commented as she poured some batter into the cake mold.

"Well, a little, but I don't think this is one of those occasions," Ginny responded. "I doubt my brother tried that hard." She traded a look with Harry as he bit into his sandwich. "I imagine he blurted it out over take out or something."

Across the table Claire snorted and flipped the page in a wedding magazine and Harry flinched. "Quidditch game actually," he told them. "A game she didn't even want to go to and," he added, holding up a finger that was smeared on the side with mayonnaise. "I was there, he didn't even make it privet."

For a moment Ginny closed her eyes to imagine it, and found the situation all too plausible. Her brother really was hopeless. He was lucky to have a girl like Hermione at all.

"How did Evan propose to you?" Harry asked Claire, looking politely interested. She rather had a suspicion that Harry was trying to take notes for her brother.

"Oh, it was so romantic," Claire, gushed, letting the magazine fall to the table. Instead she adapted a pose; Ginny knew was rehearsed, since she had seen it in play several times before. One hand was held to her chest, the other pressed against the table. Sam noticed it too and exchanged a smile with Ginny. "He took me for a walk in the Botanical Gardens, right after lunch at my favorite restaurant."

"Yeah," Ginny commented dryly. "But I think most of it had to do with the size of the rock."

Claire dropped her romantic stance and took a moment to examine the ring on her finger. A small sigh escaped her lips.

"Ah," Harry said. "So that's what Ron was missing."

With a matching shocked expression, the three women, and to Ginny's delight, Sam, turned to Harry with shocked expressions.

"He didn't have a ring?" Sam said in a squeaky voice, after he noticed the other eyes on him he cleared his throat and tried again. "No ring?" He said in a deeper voice, much lower than normal.

"I told you my brother was hopeless," Ginny said, deciding to ignore Sam's outburst.

Harry shrugged as if he didn't understand either way and returned to finishing off his snack.

"Well," Claire added, holding her hand over the table so everyone had a good view of her engagement ring. "At least I have one."

Sam snorted. "Girls," he said, aiming his comment to Harry who thankfully knew enough to avoid his eyes so he wouldn't be included in whatever Sam was going to say. "We'll… ow!" He broke off and started rubbing his head where Marie had thrown a roll at him.

It bounced off and Mickey chased after it happily and retreated to the corner to munch on his snack.

"That was for whatever you were about to say," Marie said, already returning to her work. "I'm not paying you to insult me, or my gender," she scolded, though her lips were turned in a smile.

Sam rubbed his head and took a seat at the bar. "Yeah, but you're paying Ginny to gab."

"Nonsense, Sammy," Ginny told him. "She's paying me to look pretty."

"Actually," Marie said, appearing from around the counter. "I'm not. Out on the floor, Ginny and help Sam out." She jerked her head at Harry. "And you can make yourself useful by helping me decorate some biscuits."

Ginny tried to tell Harry that he didn't have to stick around, but he brushed her comments away. So, while Ginny jumped back and forth between the floor and the kitchen, Harry helped Marie. Evan arrived after an hour and joined them, and before two long Marie had set both young men on starting the soup for dinner. Even when six o'clock came around, and Ginny's shift ended, she was the one who had to practically drag Harry out of the kitchen.

"You really didn't have to stay," Ginny told him again after she finally got him out on the street.

"No," he said and he was smiling. "But it was fun, I haven't cooked in a long time."

"Marie has a habit of recruiting anyone who drops by, I should have warned you."

"Really, it was fine, but," he flashed her a smile. "I hope she doesn't intend to demote me from Auror to pastry chef."

Ginny laughed along with him. "I don't know, she would probably try, I'd be careful if I were you."

This time Harry didn't answer, but merely caught her eyes with his and smiled. Ginny felt herself blushing again.

"But I am glad you came by," she told him, feeling the need to say something before the moment became too awkward.

"Are you sure," he asked, sweeping his hand through his hair again, and scratching the back of his head. "I didn't think you'd mind, but I wasn't sure it was appropriate."

Ginny caught his hand as it fell back down to his side and squeezed his fingers between hers. "I think, that by now Harry, you can feel free to stop by any time you want." To reinforce her words she stood up on her toes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

After all, they had been together for nearly two months now. Ever since their first date, things had moved fast. In no time at all, Harry had taken to returning to Ginny's flat after work, rather than his own. Most nights, he stayed over, sometimes they went to dinner, or hung out at the café, or when Ginny had to work, Harry went out with Sam and the boys instead. However, today was the first day that Harry had come to the café before closing and met Marie, Ginny took it as a good sign. Maybe now he would come and spend some days in the back kitchen like the rest of her group.

"How was work?" She asked, trying to sound delicate. Harry didn't often like talking about work, it usually made him tense up and he could never reveal anything anyways.

Luckily, today he just shrugged, not bothering to remove the silly grin from his face. "Well enough, I've been put on a case with your brother so we'll be working more closely than usual."

"Has he asked about where you've been lately?" She asked, unable to resist. She knew she should feel guilty about taking her brother's best friend away from him, but all the time Harry spent with her made her feel so appreciated. Not to mention the extra effort Harry had been putting in to get to know her friends. She liked to think it was doing him some good, and that the situation wasn't all selfish. Harry really did like Sam, and her other friends, and having something besides work to concentrate on was making him more and more upbeat.

Harry laughed with her. "A bit, but Hermione is the one who is more interested. Its not like they miss me that much. They spend most of their time with each other anyways."

"That doesn't sound like a bad thing to me," Ginny said, sliding closer to Harry, so that he was prompted to release her hand and wrap his arm around her instead.

"Not at all," Harry agreed.

"I'm not working anymore tonight," she hinted, snuggling closer. It was nearing the end of October, she reasoned, and she needed the extra warmth. "And Claire doesn't need help with the wedding, and I don't have any homework to work on for tomorrow."

"Is that so?" Harry said with a smile in his voice. "Well, that sounds like a whole night all to ourselves."

"What could we possibly do with a whole night?" Ginny said, tapping her fingers against her lips tauntingly.

"Mmm," Harry moaned, pressing his own lips against her hair as tightened his arm around her slim waist. "I'm sure I'll manage to think of something. We can go to the market and pick up groceries."

"What?" Ginny said, pulling away and giving her boyfriend a strange look.

His face remained perfectly serious. "Oh yes, isn't that what you had in mind? Catching up on some chores?"

She forced a laugh, hoping he was joking, then when his expression didn't change she pulled them to a stop. "I have a night off and you want to catch up on the shopping?"

Taking pity on her, Harry grinned and reached out for her again. "No, I want to pick some things up so I can make you a fantastic dinner while you take a nice relaxing bath."

Her heart nearly melted, and the hopeless smile on her face grew. "Harry," she cried, knowing she was using her girly voice. Sam complained that she always used it when she was happy (or when she was trying to get something she wanted out of someone). "You are the sweetest," she kissed him, "boyfriend," she kissed him again, "ever."

He captured her mouth on the last kiss, and deepened their contact. She kissed him back ferociously, reaching her hands up to curl around the back of his neck. After a few moments they broke away, Ginny giving him a few more teasing pecks before she withdrew back into his arms and resumed their walk.

"On second thought," Harry said, his voice a little huskier than usual. "Maybe we should just skip dinner."

"Nope, you said, and now I'm holding you to this," said Ginny with a shake of her head.

"Alright fine," Harry relented. "I guess I did promise. How about I nip off to the store and find something to make, while you get started on that bath." He bent down again and gave her another lingering kiss, this time leaving her wanting more. "And," he added as he pulled away. "If you even dare get out of that tub before I get back…"

She laughed and pushed him back the way they came. "You go on, I'll be waiting for you."

Reluctantly they parted ways, Harry for Marks and Spencer's, and Ginny for her flat. Though Ginny rather thought she had the better end of the deal since she was only a block away from home, and Harry was going to have to double back a distance.

Since Mickey wasn't home, her entrance was uneventfully quiet. She kicked off her shoes, tossed her coat on the rack, and checked the sideboard for mail. There was a copy of an invitation to the wedding that Claire had sent her, as well as a copy of the Oxford Times, and there was a letter from her Dad. She tossed the first two, aside and took the letter from her Dad into her room. Usually it was her Mum who sent the letters from the both of them, not her Dad.

Dear Ginny,

As you know it's your Mum's birthday at the end of the month, and I've got all the boys coming over to surprise her, and we would like to have you join us. It's been a while since I've seen you angel, and I'm really counting on you coming. Ron is bringing Hermione and Harry of course, and a few of your brothers have decided to bring their girlfriends. Your Sam will be welcome if you wish. Don't forget it will be a surprise, so arrive for dinner at exactly 6:00. I look forward to seeing my angel, and please come, it would mean a lot to your Mum.

Love, Dad

Ginny tossed the letter down on her desk and retreated to the bathroom to think. She couldn't very well tell her dad she wouldn't show up to her mum's birthday party, but less than a weeks notice? She had already arranged for her mum's present to be delivered and had signed the card that Bill had sent her, but she hadn't planned on visiting.

The bathwater was running blessedly warm for once, since Sam hadn't had the opportunity to use up all the hot water in the pipes, so Ginny was determined to let it fill to the brim. Shucking off her clothes and dancing a bit in the cold air, Ginny hurriedly scrambled into the tub to think upon the matter further.

There wasn't any other option but to go, and she _would_ like to see her family again. But the letter had said that Harry was already invited. So far they had made it this far into their relationship without seeing a need to tell their family. At first it had been because Ginny didn't really want anyone interfering, or any awkwardness if they broke up. Now though… she rather liked the anonymity. Things were going good. Would they change if her family knew about her relationship with Harry? How miserable would dinner at her parent's house be if they told them then?

Groaning aloud, she slipped her head under the water to wet her hair, and let the bubbles surround her. She asked herself for the hundredth time, why did Harry have to be like a member of her family?

By the time the bubbles had faded away she heard Harry in the hall, making a loud racket as with his parcels. In case he had intended to get in the tub with her, Ginny reached for the tap to fill the tub up with more hot water and a new stream of colored bubbles.

Harry pushed open the bathroom door just as she was settling back into a new mass of white foam.

"Look, pruny," Ginny said, holding a wrinkled hand up for his inspection.

He smiled at her, turned off the tap and knelt next to the tub. "Hmm… well your premature ageing might not be very fanciable, but I have to say that I do like how you look in bubbles." His hand scooped away the bubbles that had gathered around her chest, and his fingers grazed her collarbone.

As much as she liked Harry's fingers massaging their way up to her shoulder, her gaze and attention drifted back to her dad's letter, now slightly soggy and sitting on the floor next to Harry.

"Dad wrote about mum's birthday," she said, unable to withhold the sigh.

"Yeah, I know," said Harry. He shifted so that he could better reach the back of her neck.

Ginny pulled away. "You did? Why didn't you say anything?"

His head tilted, and he rested his hand on the back of the tub. "Well, I assumed you knew. It's your mum."

"Oh," she said and settled back, hoping his hands would resume their ministrations. "Are you going?"

"Why wouldn't I?" he asked. "I always go to your family's birthday's."

"What do you mean?" she asked. There was a cold feeling creeping up on her that had nothing to do with the tepid bath water.

He frowned at her. "You know what I mean, your family takes any excuse to celebrate anything."

"But, I haven't been to any birthday dinners since…" she thought, unable to believe the date she came up with. "Hogwarts." She had stopped by the Burrow once or twice when only her parents were home, but had never stayed long enough for a celebration of any kind.

This time Harry smiled and reached for her shoulders again, fingers brushing the hair that had escaped her pins. "Ginny, you've been busy, no one blames you for not going. You always spend Christmas at the Burrow don't you?"

She nodded, and relaxed into his hands, but she felt strange. "You've been going to every birthday?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Doesn't you mum invite you?"

"She mentions it in letters but," she rubbed her face with a wet hand. "I never really thought they were _parties_."

"No worries, Ginny," said Harry. "No one judges you for it. Everyone knows you have a busy life."

For some reason this just irritated her more. "You mean school?" she asked, sitting up in the tub and not noticing as the water sloshed over the side of the tub and splashed Harry. "The twins run a business, Ron and you are Aurors, Hermione has her research, Charlie's teaching now and Bill has a family and a demanding career with Gringotts. Do all of you make all of these dinners?"

Catching on that this was quickly becoming a sore topic, Harry pulled a towel off the door and started drying off his hands, probably buying time before he had to answer. "Not always. I mean, I didn't make your last party so…"

"Mine! _My_ party?" she cried. "I didn't have a birthday party!"

Harry's features froze. She could practically see him searching through his head for something suitable to say. "Er—see, well, your mum still has dinner for the family on your birthday, but I was still in Berlin so I didn't make it."

"Well, neither did I," she said, wondering if the wetness on her face was all from the bathwater. She remembered getting the letter from her mum before her birthday asking if she wanted a party, and if she was coming home for her birthday. She had declined, claiming summer school and work, so her brothers and her parents had sent their letters and presents by owl on her birthday. Had they celebrated without her? Had they _been_ celebrating with out her? "Oh, my god, Harry," she said, gripping either side of the tub with her hands. "I've forgotten my family haven't I?"

Harry managed to calm her down and get her out of the tub, but all along Ginny couldn't shake the thought from her head. It had been years since she had been living in Oxford—only an apparation away from the Burrow, and she couldn't even go home to visit her family? Even when she had received the letter from her dad the first thing that had occurred to her was to come up with an excuse not to go. How had this happened?

"It's not your fault, Gin," Harry said for the tenth time since she had moved to the couch. He had wrapped a fluffy robe around her and was rubbing her shoulders in an effort to cheer her up. She could tell he wanted her to be happy again desperately, and didn't know what to do.

"It _is_ my fault," she said. "I've been horrible." She sniffed. No matter what she had been she wouldn't be that way anymore. She was going to go to her mum's birthday and every single one after that. And she was going to start spending more time around the Burrow and with her brothers again. _Harry_, spent more time with her family than she did. "But I won't be anymore," she said. "I'll make sure I don't miss anything else."

Harry sighed in relief, when she sat up and wiped away her tears. "So, you're going to your mum's party?"

"Yes, of course."

"Good," he said. "Now, shall I start making dinner?"

She reached up and grabbed his sleeve when he would have stood up. "No, wait. Harry," she sighed and watched him sit back down heavily. "What about us?"

His lips parted and his forehead furrowed. "What about us?" he said slowly.

"No," she said quickly. "Not a talk like that," she smiled softly at him, and caught his hand in hers so she could stroke it with her thumb. "Don't be silly. I just meant with my family."

"We'll tell them we're together now," he said simply. "No big deal. It's been a while now."

Ginny bit her lip and looked away. Sure she wanted to spend more time with her family, but she also wanted to spend time with _Harry_. Things hadn't changed with her stance on that subject.

"Ginny?" said Harry. "You've got a sad look on your face again."

Her lips twisted and she glanced at Harry again.

He sighed. "You don't want to say anything to your family do you?"

"Would you hate me terribly?" she asked, brushing fringe out of her face.

He reached for her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Ginny, you are—we both are—going to have to have to tell your family sometime. You know that."

"I do," she said, and nestled her head into his neck so she wouldn't have to look him in the eye. "Please, Harry, I just don't want to have to deal with that yet. They must hate me enough as it is, I don't want to give them another reason to be upset so soon."

He stiffened. "You think they'd be upset about us?"

"No, no," she reassured him with several quick kisses on his chin. "Upset with _me_, you know my family loves you."

"Why then, would they be upset with you?"

"For lying, and leading you on," she added.

"You're leading me on?" this time he pushed her away so that she was forced to meet his gaze, there was a small amused smile on his face.

"Of course not," she told him with a playful slap to his chest. "That's just what my mum would say. She was pretty sore with me during out time at Hogwarts, she thought I was the one who broke up with you for the longest time."

For a moment he just stared at her while the smile slowly bled from his face. "Really?"

She just nodded. "Don't worry about it, Harry. It all worked out. So, you'll wait until I'm ready?"

He didn't look happy about it, but reluctantly Harry nodded. "I assume that means we can't go to your mum's birthday together then?" She shook her head. "Alright, we'll wait for you."

In the end, Ginny ended up forcing more than Harry to wait for her. Predictably, she arrived at the Burrow late. Dinner had already started, so after giving Mum a quick embrace, and her Dad a peck on and took the empty next to the twins, leaving the last opening on her other side for Sam.

Not only was her whole family there, even Remus and Tonks had made it in addition to Harry and Hermione. Percy was absent for obvious reasons, although the thought of him still made Mum tear up. Fleur's presence however was in excess. She was on her feet the moment Sam walked in the door, introducing herself and cooing over Mickey.

"Brothers, you know Sam," Ginny said when Sam managed to untangle himself away from Fleur. "Sam you know my brothers." The Weasley boys nodded, uninterested, though Fred still shot him a rather sharp look. "Also that's Remus, Tonks, and Harry and that is Hermione who I think you met last Christmas now I think about it."

The first three nodded to Sam, Harry trying desperately to seem as if they didn't know each other (though Ginny didn't think anyone else would notice his strained smile), and Hermione smiled. "Yes," she said. "You came over for Christmas dinner didn't you?"

"That's right, though I think we were a bit late then too," Sam said, and then took the seat next to Ginny. "I hope you don't mind that I joined you?"

"Of course not, dear," Mum was the first to say, reaching across the table to pat his hand. "I am just glad you both could make it." Then with effort she glanced down where Mickey was drooling on Harry's knee.

Ginny followed her glance and blushed at Harry and tried to resist a smile. "Er—sorry about that Harry, just push him off, will you?"

"Its alright," Harry said. "Is this your dog?"

"Mine," Sam answered, and then patted his knee so Mickey would curl up between Sam and Ginny instead. "Sorry he came too, but he turns into a big baby if he's left alone."

After that the conversation drifted back to catching up with her brothers and her mum's birthday. As usual, Ginny was able to leap into the center of the conversation, and found herself having more fun than she had in a long time. She had forgotten how much she loved these people, and was more pleased than ever with her vow to spend more time among them. The only uncomfortable moment during dinner came when her mum noticed one of the looks that Harry and Ginny kept trying to resist shooting at each other.

"So, tell me, Harry," Mum said, eyes sparkling. "Did Ginny get the chance to show you around the city when you were in Oxford last summer?"

Ginny nearly burst out laughing at the look on Harry's face. He had been caught mid-swallow and nearly choked at the question. Being Harry however, he quickly recovered and shot mum a dashing smile. "Yes, we went to lunch actually. She was an excellent tour guide."

"You never told me you went to visit Ginny," Ron said through a thick bite of mashed potatoes.

Both Harry and Ginny were saved having to answer by Hermione. "Well, he didn't go visit Ginny did he? He went for his Auror lectures, which he told both of us about. He was gone for a week Ron, honestly."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Like I'd notice," he whispered. Then to Ginny's surprise he gave Harry a wicked look and turned back to mum. "Actually, Mum, Hermione and I rather think Harry's found himself a girl."

Harry was instantly pink and for a moment Ginny fancied that he had something of a Weasley blush about him and wondered if it was contagious. Remus immediately began thumping him on the back, and the twins started up with their catcalls.

"But he won't admit to it of course," Ron finished. "Won't say anything about her really."

"I think its sweet," Hermione piped up, trading a melting look with Tonks. "He wants to keep her a secret, but he's gone all the time." She glanced at Ginny as if sharing a secret of her own. Ginny stared back with a puzzled expression, trying to figure out what Hermione was underlining for her. "He came home one night last week and called her the girl of his dreams."

At that Ginny wasn't sure who was blushing more, her or Harry. Though possibly Sam who had started up in a sudden fit of coughs or Bill who had slapped Charlie's hand noisily drew more attention.

Harry was sometimes sweet like that to her in privet, but she hadn't known he had been saying things like that to Ron or Hermione, or anyone else for that matter. Trying not to look too obvious, Ginny spared Harry a quick glance and saw him sinking a little further into his chair. He was no longer eating or meeting any one persons gaze.

"Oh lets not embarrass the boy anymore," Mr. Weasley spoke up. "Let him have his romance to himself." He brandished a fork at Harry. "But I fully intend to meet this young woman before too long. She must meet the Weasley's approval."

"And on the behalf of the Marauders," Remus said while fixing Harry with amused glare. "I must deem her Potter worthy as well."

"I think," Mum put in. "That anyone Harry falls in love with will be just lovely."

"So, why's it that Harry's got instant approval then?" Fred cried out. He seemed to have perked up a bit more now Harry was already at his pinkest. No amount of jeers and teasing could get him any brighter. "You gave Fleur a time and a half, not to mention anyone Fred and I ever bring home."

Though Fleur bristled slightly and tried to ignore the conversation Ginny noticed Hermione sitting up straighter in her chair, a look of pure satisfaction on her face. No one had ever questioned Ron's choice either. Then again, Hermione had been coming around the Burrow since her Hogwarts days, and had always been there for the Weasley family and for Harry.

"Yeah, what gives?" George asked. "You scared off my last girlfriend the first time I brought her around here."

"Actually," Charlie commented from across the table. "I think she was scared off by the dinner roll that turned into a mouse and crawled down her robes."

"Or that," George agreed absently. "C'mon, Harry. Give us a hint at the lucky witch. Anyone from Hogwarts?"

Harry's face remained embarrassed, but uninformative.

"Come on now, boys," Remus said. He patted Harry's shoulder comfortingly. "Harry's got more of a reason to respect his own privacy than any of us." He winked at Harry. "Don't want her to be targeted by that fan club you've got out there do you? I can see why you'd want to keep your girl a secret."

Mum dropped a pudding on the table with a little more force than necessary. They all knew how much she hated reporters. "Well, there's no reason for the poor girl to end up on the front page, that much is for sure." Then she turned on the twins. "Besides, I haven't seen either of you boys around here with any young witches since that poor Anne."

The twins shut up and turned to one another and began muttering.

"Alright, so we've covered the twins and Harry, and we all know Charlie's a full time bachelor," Tonk's eyes twinkled at Charlie who just shrugged his shoulders. "What about you, Ginny? Found yourself a good young man yet?"

The question came just as Ginny thought she might have finally returned to her usual pale and freckled color, but instantly she felt her cheeks warming up again. "Oh," she said softly. "I don't know. Not really I suppose." She shot Harry a sly smile and tried to ignore the fork that Sam jabbed into her shin.

"You're still living with him," Fred piped up glaring at Sam again. "Its no wonder you're not with anyone decent then—ow!" Tonks had just reached over and probed him none too gently in the ribs.

Ginny rolled her eyes apologetically at Sam, but he knew better to take offence.

"I think it's good you're living with Gin," Charlie said, nudging Sam. "Keeps the other blokes away, if you lot know what I mean."

There were a few agreeable mutters around the table and Fred seemed a bit more pacified.

"You'd tell us if she's got anyone questionable coming around," Ron said, leaning across the table. "And by questionable, I mean anyone at all really."

"What's that mean, Ronald?" said Ginny. Now she felt her color turn from embarrassment to anger. "Am I not allowed to have friends?"

"No," he answered. "Just friends of the male variety."

She glared at him tight lipped for a moment and then pulled out her wand. "You know I can still bat-boogey hex you into oblivion right? I'm not too old to do it."

"Now, calm down," Dad said, pushing Ginny's wand tip away from Ron. "No ones going to hex anyone at this table tonight. Let's just enjoy the pudding, shall we?"

After that, the conversation moved onto safer ground and Ginny was able to relax back into the flow again. It seemed that Harry had been shocked into silence and was doing his best to stay out of the topic. Finally mum announced that it was time to retreat into the den to open presents.

"Here, Mum," Ginny said. "Let me clear the table and you can all go in and start presents." She was feeling a little guilty that she had been running late and missed the surprise bit.

Mum gave her a smile and a hug as the rest of the family started to filter off into the other room, Mickey at the head of the long column. "Thank you, love," she said and then peered over at Harry who was just getting up from the table. "Harry dear, why don't you help Ginny?"

"Of course, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said and offered them both a lopsided grin. "I'd be happy to."

Her mum started to bustle out of the room behind Charlie, but then stopped to give Ginny another impromptu hug. "I am so glad you could join us dear, it is so nice to have you around the house again."

Ginny returned the hug, but felt unable to say anything since her throat had suddenly choked up. She knew her mum wasn't trying to make her feel guilty, but she couldn't help it.

The moment her mum was out the door, Ginny had crossed the room and pushed herself against Harry, kissing him as passionately as she could. They broke apart when the heard the twins set off a firecracker in the next room, and then made sure there was at least a foot of distance between them.

"It was all I could do to sit across the table from you," Ginny said, giving Harry what she hoped was a wicked look. "It was absolute torture."

"Mmm… I know what you mean," Harry said, reaching out his hands to pull her back.

"Not now, Harry," she giggled back. "There all in the next room."

"So what?" he retorted, kissing her and making her giggle against his lips more. "Feel like laughing at me, Weasley?" he teased, moving his hands from her waist to her belly to tickle her at her most sensitive spot. She broke into laughter immediately and tried to bat him away. He only responded with laughter of his own and a series of quick movements with his fingers.

The door swung open from the living room and Harry and Ginny were caught, leaning into one another, Harry's hands still holding onto Ginny firmly.

"You might want to keep it quite in here," Sam said, giving them both a grin. "Just a heads up."

They broke apart with sheepish smiles, glad that it was only Sam who had caught them at an intimate moment. The moment they moved though, Sam was pushed aside by Hermione, wearing a cross expression.

"Why don't you boys go on in, I'll help Ginny finish up in here," she said.

Ginny glared at Hermione for a moment, for being rude, but Harry and Sam just shrugged and left them alone.

"What's your problem today Hermione?" Ginny asked, already turning to start stacking the dishes.

Hermione flicked her wand and all the plates rose from the table and moved to the sink on their own accord, even the ones that were in Ginny's hand.

"Ginny, I think we should talk," she said solemnly. "Please, have a seat."

She turned and stared at her brother's girlfriend incredulously. When did Hermione get the nerve to tell her to sit in her own house? "Talk about what exactly?" she asked, refusing to sit.

Hermione stared back tight-lipped and Ginny suddenly thought of how much like McGonagall she looked then. "You and Harry," she said.

Ginny sat.

How had Hermione found them out? Had Harry said something? All of a sudden Ginny didn't feel very angry anymore, rather she felt a bit sad that her secret was out, and in a way partly relieved, but then immediately she just felt guilty for thinking she needed to keep their relationship a secret to begin with.

"Ginny, he's moved on," Ginny glanced up at Hermione who was now sitting next to her with a sympathetic expression. The other girl reached out and placed her hand on Ginny's arm. "I think it's time you should too."

She felt like laughing the situation was so ridiculous. "What?" she said, managing to keep calm, a sideways glance being the only expression that conveyed her confusion.

Hermione frowned. "I'm sorry to be the one to say this, Ginny, I know we haven't seen much of each other these past few years, but I still think of you as a good friend and I care about you. Harry's moved on, and I think he's in love," for the second time that night Ginny started at a comment about the level of feelings Harry had towards her. Wasn't it Hermione who had told the table only twenty minutes earlier that Harry had called her the girl of his dreams? Now she was talking about love?

"Love?" Ginny repeated, more to herself than to Hermione.

The hand on Ginny's arm began to rub up and down soothingly. "I don't think Harry is going to give that up, Ginny. I think he's really serious this time."

Ginny blinked and took a deep breath, processing that information. Then she glanced back up at Hermione and narrowed her eyes. "So, what does that have to do with me?"

The other girl frowned heavily as if the answer were obvious. "Ginny, I've seen the way you've been looking at him all night, and then the way you were acting when I just walked in," she shook her head as if Ginny had severely disappointed her. "I just don't want to see either one of you hurt, and I want Harry to be happy. Don't you want Harry to be happy, Ginny?"

She nearly laughed at the irony, but quickly schooled her expression before Hermione started thinking she was mad on top of lovesick. "Of course I do, Hermione. I'll always want Harry to be happy."

Hermione moved her hand from Ginny's arm and stood up. "So you won't interfere with Harry's new relationship?"

"I promise," Ginny said with the most sincere smile she had worn all night.

"Well then, how about I finish tidying up and you can go and enjoy yourself?" She held her hand out to Ginny to help her up and then embraced her in a hug. "I'm sorry, Ginny. If it's any consolation, I've really missed you and I'm glad you came."

Despite Hermione's meddling tendencies, Ginny felt warmed by the comment and grinned back. "I missed you too, 'Mione."

Ron caught Ginny first when she slid into the room and nudged her in the ribs. "What did Hermione want with you?" he asked.

Ginny shrugged and accepted the drink he handed to her. "Does anyone ever know what Hermione wants?" she retorted. "Something about Harry, she seems to think that I'm heartbroken over him."

As she could have predicted, Ron's jaw dropped and he tore his eyes away from watching mum chide Charlie and his long hair again to his little sister. "What? Are you? I didn't know that you—" he stopped when he noticed Ginny's sardonic expression. "Oh."

"Oh, is right," Ginny told him and turned back to the room so she could see her family and friends socializing.

"Hey, Gin Gin," Fred said sidling up to them from behind. "It looks like Harry just asked your boyfriend out," he nodded his head to where Sam and Harry were laughing, clicking their beers together in a toast.

Ginny gave her brother a sidelong look while Ron snorted. "Sam is not my boyfriend, Fred."

George broke off from his conversation with Tonks and bound over to them, slinging one hand around Ginny's shoulders and another around Ron's. "Hey Ron. It looks like your boyfriend just asked out Sam."

Ron stopped laughing and scowled. "Harry's not my boyfriend."

Behind them the door to the kitchen swung open and they all turned to see Hermione snorting into her glass. "Right, could have fooled me."

"Hermione!" Ron yelled, already blushing brightly.

His girlfriend just rolled her eyes and shared a significant look with Ginny.

Ginny grinned back and looked around the room taking in the antics of her family, friends and finally Harry. He met her glance from across the room and the corner of his lips twitched.

She sighed. It was so good to be home.


End file.
